tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-386942042017-08-11T18:32:50.785-07:00white anti-racist parenta place for open dialogue around raising anti-racist consciousness &amp; racial justice activism in the white communityTerezahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01537776511607080977noreply@blogger.comBlogger68125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38694204.post-81945705380216611332011-08-24T13:33:00.000-07:002011-08-27T19:24:11.346-07:00grappling with whiteness<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-f129nvI7p0o/Tlk8Iz7zGdI/AAAAAAAABJ8/6vmGhgeDHm8/s1600/photo%2B1.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 200px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-f129nvI7p0o/Tlk8Iz7zGdI/AAAAAAAABJ8/6vmGhgeDHm8/s200/photo%2B1.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5645609729963268562" /></a>
<br />Every time I write out my thoughts on racism, I feel self-conscious, presumptuous and self-indulgent as a white person. But writing helps me process my thoughts and move forward. Also, it is clear that white people need to talk about issues of race more. Otherwise, for us, race is the perpetual elephant in the room and nothing will change. In fact, one thing I am committed to is to consistently bring the topic of racism to the forefront with the white people in my world.
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<br />So, here goes my latest two cents...
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<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Taking it in</span>
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<br />Since my early years in this country, I have been concerned with issues of race and racism, a topic close to my heart, perhaps because some of my strongest initial bonds in the US were with friends and lovers who happened to be people of color, and who opened my eyes to their experiences. As a white person, I have wrestled with trying to grasp how the reality of living in a racist society impacts me and how I can be useful in efforts to counter and not collude with the oppressive system that exists. This process has taken on a special significance for me since I have become a mother of a white child whom I want to raise with an antiracist consciousness. More recently, I have also become a stepmother to a biracial child, and, again after many years, I am now involved in a black-white interracial relationship.
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<br />I spend time every day learning about the inner workings of interpersonal and systemic racism and its impacts on people of color, as well as the meaning of whiteness in all this. I listen with an open heart to my friends' and strangers' stories, read about and watch videos discussing issues of race, I participate in interracial dialogues and workshops. I monetarily support community and civil rights organizations I believe make a difference and occasionally attend protests. Last year I completed a human rights fellowship in Europe, listening to and <a href="http://romarights.blogspot.com/">writing</a> about the struggles of people of color there to educate the international community as well as my white circles in deep denial. I need to know <a href="http://www.coalitioncommunitiescolor.org/docs/AN%20UNSETTLING%20PROFILE.pdf">how life is for people of color</a> in the motherland, in this heavily stratified society, and in my <a href="http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2009/01/in_a_changing_world_portland_r.html">overwhelmingly white city</a>. I feel the need to compare how other whites grapple with white privilege, and the responsibility it bestows on them, on us. All this in order to grow and be able to be a good ally; to even perceive injustice, let alone challenge it.
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<br />While I process all this, I feel the pain of racism people of color share with me deeply, although it will never be first-hand since I am white. Simultaneously, I get frustrated at how invisible and ungraspable the traps of whiteness are to me. I get impatient, often admonish myself for being slow to understand and, moreover, for not doing enough to upset the status quo interpersonally, and on a larger scale, institutionally.
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<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Parenting right</span>
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<br />As a white person who hasn't come across many effective everyday antiracist role models, to use the words of Kerry Ann Rockquemore and Tracey Laszloffy in their book, <i>Raising Biracial Children</i>, I am not sure "how to approach parenting in a way that explicitly acknowledges the omnipresence of race in daily life." I want my family to be one in which "active attention [is] devoted to addressing and explaining race, and where children are encouraged to assume an antiracist stance;. . . where [my son] learns the meaning of [his] whiteness and [learns] to critically challenge notions of white supremacy." I certainly don't come from a family with such a conscious upbringing, so this feels like an uncharted territory. But I know there are valuable resources, such as this <a href="http://www.drbarzvi.com/2010/05/15/the-truth-about-race-how-to-talk-about-it-with-your-children/">article</a> on how to talk to kids about race, available for parents.
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<br />In order to provide my children with clear guidance that helps facilitate healthy <a href="http://www.diversitycelebration.com/models-of-racial-identity/">racial identity development</a>, I feel it would be helpful to form a group of those dedicated to our own growth as antiracists and antiracist parents. That is my next task. (One model I found out there is <a href="http://loveisntenough.com/2011/07/20/white-noise-white-adults-raising-white-children-to-resist-white-supremacy-2/">White Noise</a>, a group of white parents with white children who have been meeting for two years to learn together and support each other in ending white supremacy.)
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<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Claiming whiteness</span>
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<br />In my own journey towards racial awareness, being of Jewish heritage (specifically, the granddaughter of concentration camp survivors) and an immigrant whose family was poor for many years, I am still having a hard time claiming my whiteness and claiming US history as my own, even though on an intellectual level I grasp the fact that I am now a part of a racial hierarchy stemming from a very particular historical past, from which even I, a white person who didn't grow up here, benefit tremendously.
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<br />I only say this to acknowledge my particular vantage point and history; not as a cop out, keeping in mind the words of Bonnie Berman Cushing and Jeff Hitchcock in their book <i>Accountability and White Anti-racist Organizing</i>: "In an increasingly multiracial society, the historic and present baggage of whiteness and white privilege lead many to eschew a white identity. Yet the privilege remains."
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<br />On a cognitive level I grasp that. I am familiar with Peggy MacIntosh's <a href="http://www.nymbp.org/reference/WhitePrivilege.pdf">Invisible Knapsack of White Privilege</i></a>. I get that I have advantages in this society because I am white. For instance, I never get racially profiled while driving or walking down the street. I don't stand out visually in most places in my predominantly white city. I don't generally get followed around in stores as a suspected thief or questioned about items I'm returning with or without a receipt. I am not feared or harassed by the police when in public in a group of my white peers. My skin color makes me seem financially reliable when I pay for merchandise. I don't get called racial epithets. Statistically, I can count on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_and_health_in_the_United_States">better quality health care and more longevity</a> than people of color. I am aware of all that, but, to be completely honest, there is still a resistance in me in letting the reality of white privilege sink in. Why?
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<br />Part of the resistance to claiming my white identity stems from the immigrant and the Jew in me having resisted assimilation so strongly in order to preserve my authenticity and sanity, that I have eventually found comfort, even pride in inhabiting that "otherness" ascribed to me here of someone foreign, someone with an accent; about living psychically on the margins of American society. But when it comes to racism, as a white person I am in the oppressor group. I benefit from the system, and like most white people with whom I have had conversations about this, I have a hard time deeply acknowledging that. For me in particular, it is scary to be associated with the WASP (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant), middle class mainstream influence which I have so vehemently tried to filter out of my life and my identity because, in many ways aspects of that culture have felt empty, hegemonic and oppressive. Clearly, this disassociation on my part needs bridging, which can be found, for instance in the commonality that for US-based whites, it is key, even if profoundly upsetting, to acknowledge that in American society, we automatically get the benefit of the doubt while we stand on the shoulders of men and women of color whose land, cheap or free labor and lives were (and continue to be) taken from them, seen by whites as nothing but fuel for this capitalist beast in whose belly we now find ourselves.
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<br />What a history to inherit.
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<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Untangling race at home</span>
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<br />Now I'm in a relationship with a man of African slave ancestry. I don't know how to make sense of our different histories coming together yet. Conversation about racism is a daily occurrence. I am learning so much from him and at the same time continuing my own work. While it is true that every intimate relationship is intercultural, to a degree, since the partners almost always have differences in backgrounds, communication styles, and world views to meld, in a black-white interracial relationships, the weight of history and the reality of everyday racism sometimes plays itself out in a more pronounced way. This is especially true, I'd venture to say, in geographic locations where people of color are disproportionately outnumbered and highly visible in a perpetual sea of white faces (as one blogger described in her piece, <a href="http://loveisntenough.com/2010/11/17/what-does-an-all-white-room-mean/">What does an all-white room mean?</a>). As Randall Kennedy writes in his book, <i>Interracial Intimacies: Sex, Marriage, Identity and Adoption</i>, "at the dawn of the twenty-first century, a wide array of social pressures continue to make white-black marital crossings more difficult, more costly, and thus less frequent than other types of interethnic or interracial crossings."
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<br />Our most visible differences aside, my partner and I do have some experiences in common. Both of us are immigrants, acutely familiar with being uprooted and on the margins in this society. We are both deeply rooted in our home cultures since we moved to the US as teenagers. We share similar political views. We are "blended culture" people who each speak several languages and are widely traveled. We are both college-educated, both divorced, each a parent to one child of the opposite gender from us. Although race is blatantly salient in our relationship, so are gender, class and culture. All these are so intertwined that it becomes quite a puzzle to try to untangle or isolate them to get at the core of differences or conflict. But it's worth trying. We have overcome several big points of friction already, and excavating the sources of the disagreements has been key.
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<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Longing for healing</span>
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<br />But back to the impact and implications of living in a highly racialized society on my experience as a white woman. I have come to recognize that my domain of impact in this life is not organizational or political; it is relational. As law professor and author Randall Kennedy <a href="http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/175363-1">argued</a> when explaining why he chose to write about interracial relationships:
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<br /><blockquote>People usually expect talk about regulation of laws at the workplace, the regulation of race with respect to housing markets, the regulation of race with respect to education… People don't think about spending a lot of time on the regulation of race with respect to marital intimacy, sexual intimacy. Though if you think about it, if you think about how people get jobs, if you think about how people conceive of themselves, if you think about how people learn about the world, these sorts of relationships are incredibly important. Friendship as an institution, dating as an institution is incredibly important. One thing that drew me to this subject was the extent to which actually people did not talk about it and thought of these relationships as rather trivial. . . This topic is actually more important in social consequences than some of the other institutions upon which we focus much more time.</blockquote>
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<br />The place where I connect most intensely around how racism impacts me as a white person is the pain of loss. I am keenly aware of how racism can cause friendships and close bonds to rupture and fall apart or to never form because of mistrust in the first place. On an emotional level I get how racism divides us. And that is the place that spurs me on; it's the desire for this society to become whole, for us to heal, to find each other alive and breathing under the rubble of centuries of injustice, and to feel the richness, vibrancy and joy in bridging the divide. Only when we come together being our authentic selves, speaking and hearing each other's truths, can we create long-lasting change.
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<br />So, I'll keep doing the work of learning and engaging with others … for that; for the love that was, is and that could be. Terezahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01537776511607080977noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38694204.post-66432046955357987432010-03-31T10:52:00.000-07:002010-04-02T10:07:48.388-07:00The Black Panthers in my town: a look at how the press shaped local activist history<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_zAo7mS2S0as/S7QOkhcgVvI/AAAAAAAABHI/TvMvs3PTGJI/s1600/NHN+Portland+BPP+presentation,+March+18,+2010+screen+shot+cropped.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 131px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_zAo7mS2S0as/S7QOkhcgVvI/AAAAAAAABHI/TvMvs3PTGJI/s200/NHN+Portland+BPP+presentation,+March+18,+2010+screen+shot+cropped.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5455001069268522738" /></a><br />The media prime us in ways of thinking about the world, particularly in terms of whom we accept and dismiss as legitimate or illegitimate political actors. In this way, the media frame and “crystallize history.” Media coverage of events affects our understanding of history and “preconditions what collective action we take.” These were the ideas with which Jules Boykoff, associate professor of political science at Pacific University, opened the presentation I attended on March 18. The lecture was organized by The <a href=”http://www.northwesthistory.org/”>Northwest History Network</a> and entitled “'We’re going to defend ourselves': The Portland Chapter of the Black Panther Party & Local Media Response."<br /><br />Who were the Black Panthers? What was the organization's mission nationally and locally? How were the wider community's ideas about the group shaped by the press coverage of its activities? What is the party's legacy today? These were some of the questions addressed by the presenters, who, aside from professor Boykoff included Kent Ford and Percy Hampton, both original members of the Portland Black Panther Party chapter, and Martha Gies, an Oregon author who has written extensively about the Portland Black Panthers, one of approximately fifty chapters affiliated with the national party, a progressive organization dedicated to social and economic justice and black empowerment.<br /><br />The speakers addressed a full house of about eighty-five people (more than thirty were turned away at the door for a lack of space), spanning multiple generations, but somewhat lacking in racial diversity, with approximately ninety percent of the audience being white. In attendance were also two nurses and one laboratory technician who volunteered in the Black Panther-run Portland health clinic forty years ago. <br /><br />The weekly, Portland Mercury, was the only local paper to<a href=”http://www.portlandmercury.com/portland/in-the-shadows/Content?oid=2379859”>cover</a> the talk, however, as we will see below, the report failed to explain the Black Panthers' mission or to provide a larger sociopolitical context for the organization's activities. Additionally, the Mercury article neglected to mention any critique of the media whatsoever provided that night. This is curious, given that scrutiny of the press was one of the main topics discussed; a lens so key to the lecture, in fact, that even the title--not once stated in the Mercury article--included the words “Local Media Response.” <br /><br />In light of understanding the media's power in shaping history, Boykoff and Gies discussed their findings from a survey they conducted of the local press to see what kind of coverage the Portland Black Panther Party received in Oregon during its most active period from 1969 to 1979. Their inquiry, due to be published in the fall issue of the <a href=”http://www.ohs.org/research/quarterly/”>Oregon Historical Quarterly</a>, examined all the articles printed in the local newspapers during that decade. <br /><br />Investigating the press, Boykoff and Gies found that police were nearly always the only sources quoted in the stories, with the press almost never quoting Black Panther members themselves or ever mentioning the party's <a href=”http://www.blackpanther.org/TenPoint.htm”>ten-point plan</a>, which included: “the power to determine the destiny of our Black and oppressed communities;” full employment for the Black and oppressed people; reparations for slavery; decent housing and education; free health care; an immediate end to police brutality and murder of Black and oppressed people; “an immediate end to all wars of aggression;” and “people's community control of modern technology.”<br /><br />Looking at how the press presented the BPP is important, because, according to many, including historian and activist Manning Marable, quoted in Boykoff's book <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Bullets-Suppression-Dissent-United/dp/1904859593">Beyond Bullets: The Suppression of Dissent in the United States</i></a>, the Black Panthers were one of the most influential revolutionary organizations in the U.S. <br /><br />Plenty has been written about the Black Panther Party, founded in 1966 in Oakland California and active nation-wide throughout the 1970s, but it is important to supply a little bit of historical information when so much is missing in the recent local coverage of this presentation. According to the <a href="http://www.blackpanther.org/foundation.htm">Dr. Huey P. Newton Foundation</a>, an organization dedicated to preserving the history and legacy of Black Panther Party co-founder Huey P. Newton, the Black Panther Party's platform and message was so powerful, "it became a movement of itself," resulting in "a rapid proliferation of other, like minded organizations."<br /><br />From the Dr. Huey P. Newton Foundation <a href="http://www.blackpanther.org/legacytwo.htm">website</a>:<br /><br /><blockquote> <br />"Chicanos, or Mexican Americans, in Southern California formed the Brown Berets. Whites in Chicago and environs formed the White Patriot Party. Chinese in the San Francisco Bay Area formed the Red Guard. Puerto Ricans in New York created the Young Lords. Eventually, a group of so called senior citizens organized the Gray Panthers to address the human and civil rights abuses of the elderly in society. The Party expanded from a small Oakland based organization to a national organization, as black youth in 48 states formed chapters of the Party. In addition, Black Panther coalition and support groups began to spring up internationally, in Japan, China, France, England, Germany, Sweden, in Mozambique, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Uruguay and elsewhere, including, even, in Israel.<br /><br />. . . At the street level, the Party began to develop a series of social programs to provide needed services to black and poor people, promoting thereby, at the same time, a model for an alternative, more humane social scheme. These programs, of which there came to be more than 35, were eventually referred to as Survival Programs. [These included] free breakfast programs and free clinics, but also grocery giveaways, the manufacture and distribution of free shoes, school and education programs, senior transport and service programs, free bussing to prisons and prisoner support and legal aid programs, among others.</blockquote><br /><br />One of the greatest strengths of The Panthers was that they strove for a class-based, rather than race-based, solution to social justice. Bobby Seale, one of the co-founders of the BPP, <a href="http://www.socialismtoday.org/104/panthers.html">said</a>: "Those who want to obscure the struggle with ethnic differences are the ones who are aiding and maintaining the exploitation of the masses. We need unity to defeat the boss class – every strike shows that. Every workers’ organization’s banner declares: ‘Unity is strength.’"<br /><br />In 1968, J. Edgar Hoover, director of the FBI, pledged to wage a campaign to crush the Black Panther Party, stating the Party represented "the greatest threat to the internal security of the U.S." He enlisted the assistance of local police departments to do so, and thus began the era of raids and assaults on the Party's field offices, accompanied by the FBI's <a href="http://www.blackpanther.org/legacytwo.htm">use of</a> "informants, agents provocateur and covert activities involving mayhem and murder."<br /><br />A program of the BPP seen probably as most controversial by the wider public, was that of armed citizen patrols, an effort to monitor police interactions with the black community, in order to shield community members from police harassment and excessive force. <br /><br />Bobby Seale commented on the Party's police monitoring work this way, as quoted in <i>Beyond Bullets</i>: <br /><br /><blockquote>The party realizes that the white power structure's real power is its military force; is its police force. And we can see our black communities are being occupied by policemen just like a foreign country might be occupied by foreign troops. Our politics comes from our hungry stomachs and our crushed heads and the vicious service revolver at a cop's side which is used to tear our flesh, and from the knowledge that black people are drafted to fight in wars, killing other colored people who've never done a damn thing to us. So how do we face these cops in the black community? We have to face them exactly how they come down on us. They come down with guns and force.</blockquote><br /><br />Nationwide, writes Boykoff, the media undermined the Panthers and depicted them as "wrongheaded, antisocial, and a national threat." <br /><br />In Oregon, Boykoff and Gies identified three dominant angles, or frames, used in the reporting. <br /><br />In his book <i>Beyond Bullets</i>, Boykoff writes: <br /><br /><blockquote>The mass media present social movements and their actions through a process of framing, in which easily identifiable lenses refract the news and shape public opinion. A frame is “an interpretive schemata that simplifies and condenses the 'world out there' by selectively punctuating and encoding objects, situations, events, experiences, and sequences of actions within one's present or past environment.”. . . By framing socio-political issues and controversies in specific ways, news organizations present—if tacitly—the foundational causes and potential consequences of a social problem or issue, as well as possible remedies.</blockquote><br /><br />The three dominant frames Boykoff & Gies identified in the local press coverage of the PBB were: criminality, violence, and community organizing. Sixty-three percent of all the articles used the criminality frame, amplifying arrests and trials of party members, thus creating the perception of “a threatening, menacing network of criminal enterprise which justified the need for police presence,” to use Boykoff's words. <br /><br />Criminality was used as a news peg—a central purpose or justification—for a story in about half the articles with a criminality frame. Such coverage only helped to perpetuate the damaging stereotype of African American men as criminals or “black demons” that has plagued the African American community since the colonial times and is still so prevalent today in mass media depictions of black men, <a href=”http://newsinfo.iu.edu/news/page/normal/1580.html”>according to sociologist Dennis Rome</a> whose <a href=”http://www.amazon.com/Black-Demons-Depiction-American-Stereotype/dp/0275972445”>book</a> <i>Black Demons: Mass Media's Depiction of the African American Male Criminal Stereotype</i>, which Boykoff referenced.<br /><br />Additionally, violence was used as a frame in nearly half the stories, making no distinction between self-defense and other types of violence. <br /><br />Surprisingly, Boykoff and Gies did not find a dominant anti-white frame in Oregon's press, though the depiction of the Black Panthers as anti-white was abundant in national press forty years ago. <br /><br />The community organizer frame was present in just over a third of all the articles, though whenever the Black-Panther-run Portland clinic or breakfast program for the poor were mentioned, this was done without substance and “without the civil rights context,” Boykoff said.<br /><br />Letters to the editor were the only places of dissent, contention and more substantial information about the Black Panthers—perhaps a lesson for today's activists to use this space more actively in order to shed a light on often underrepresented voices in the media, as Boykoff suggested.<br /><br />The Portland Mercury already <a href=”http://www.portlandmercury.com/portland/in-the-shadows/Content?oid=2379859”>covered</a> the bulk of the experiences shared that night by the Oregon Black Panther Party members, but what kind of language was used to do so? <br /><br />The article was entitled In The Shadows: Talking with the Black Panthers. Why in the shadows? The readers are never enlightened as to the reason for this word choice. Again, the BPP's mission or function in the community is never quite explained. We are told that Kent Ford “was the founder of Portland's chapter of the '60s-era black empowerment organization.” But the rest of the activities of the organization are hardly, if at all, expounded upon. We learn about the Black Panthers' free breakfast program: “The free breakfasts the group handed out to school kids on NE 7th and Wygant are no more.” No context there. The readers find out about the free health and dental clinics run by the Black Panthers, again without the larger context. The only example of patients treated there is that of drug-addicted prostitutes.<br /><br />The paper informs of the BPP's mission to end police brutality in this way: “Tensions between police and African Americans in his NE Portland neighborhood running at a dangerous high.” Again, this brief statement leaves out the historical context of the Panthers' struggle for justice.<br /><br />Percy Hampton's crystallizing life event which led to his involvement with the BPP is described somewhat ambiguously: Two officers harassed Hampton while he was walking to a grocery store. “The two officers got angry, beat him up, and sent him to jail for 90 days for assaulting the police.” Nothing more.<br /><br />Next we learn that the local leader Ford “remembers standing on Union Avenue (now MLK) with a shotgun, monitoring police arrests of black people.” To those unfamiliar with the philosophy and activities of the party, this type of a quote again casts the light of a threatening presence that could potentially justify the use of violence by the police, a dangerous image to broadcast without further explanation, given today's heated struggle against recurring cases of police brutality and use of excessive force, disproportionately affecting Portland's African American community.<br /><br />It is unfortunate that forty years later, the history of one of the most influential progressive organizations dedicated to affecting social change in this country remains shrouded behind the misleading language used by the press, and in what is missing between the lines. The wider public continues to be "underinformed," if not misinformed, by the media about the real work and achievements of the Black Panther Party. The media, especially the smaller, alternative press like Portland Mercury, should strive to do better than this.Terezahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01537776511607080977noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38694204.post-5454222045781292322010-03-31T10:43:00.000-07:002010-03-31T10:48:48.475-07:00returningLife has been a whirlwind. But because I haven't been posting here doesn't mean I haven't stayed dedicated to my personal mission of working towards racial justice. <br /><br />Over the last year, I have written several articles that I would like to repost here. They are not necessarily directly related to parenting, but they do show some of my thinking and involvement out in the wider community. <br /><br />It is my hope that more white people will educate themselves as well as speak up and stand up against racism in both interpersonal and institutional contexts. <br /><br />Over the last year or so, I have been doing that in the articles I have written, but my commitment to the work strengthens as time goes on and as I find more allies and more concrete ways to affect change.Terezahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01537776511607080977noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38694204.post-29381168657858339812010-03-16T10:00:00.001-07:002010-04-02T10:05:03.717-07:00Diversity at my son's school: are they for real?<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_zAo7mS2S0as/S6PygZ0RVTI/AAAAAAAABG4/bzK9KK3O1ME/s1600-h/book+display.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 171px; height: 200px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_zAo7mS2S0as/S6PygZ0RVTI/AAAAAAAABG4/bzK9KK3O1ME/s200/book+display.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5450466612548293938" /></a><br />A couple of years back, I wrote a <a href="http://loveisntenough.com/2007/05/11/oh-the-wonderful-world-of-toddler-picture-books-and-more/">post</a>, also published at Anti-Racist Parent--now renamed <a href="http://loveisntenough.com">Love Isn't Enough</a>, in which I surveyed my son's library to examine gender stereotypes and the representation of people of color in his books. I took a trip down memory lane this week, and conducted a similar experiment at his school during my short stint as a volunteer at a Scholastic Book Fair/Fundraiser. Fascinating.<br /><br />Of course, the school AND the company Scholastic both like to pay a lot of lip service to "diversity." Who doesn't these days. <br /><br />The first <a href="http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=583">article</a> by Scholastic on "diversity" that popped up in my search says: <br /><br /><blockquote>Even 3 and 4 year olds are tuned in to matters of culture and ethnicity. For them, the issues are not social but personal, and are closely related to their self-esteem. . . If your child's preschool validates cultural diversity, you'll know it just by looking around. Are a variety of faces represented on the walls?</blockquote><br /><br />That article was published in 1996. So, how is Scholastic doing now as far as honoring diversity with the reading materials it sells in the communities who choose Scholastic book fairs as venues for fundraising?<br /><br />First, let's look at my son's school community. I know that each classroom, during enrollment, tries to balance equally the gender represented in the student body. Racially, in my completely unscientific estimation, the population of the school is about eighty percent white, reflecting--and possibly proportion-wise surpassing--the racial make-up of Portland, the <a href="http://whiteantiracistparent.blogspot.com/2007/02/taking-stock-of-diversity-in-my-town.html">whitest US city</a> with a population of over half-million. (Portland is about <a href="http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/41/4159000.html">78% white, while the state of Oregon is 87% white</a>. Just to throw in a bit of trivia, the Czech Republic, where I grew up, is about 97% white). Religious affiliations are impossible to determine, though I know for sure that at least three major religions (Christianity, Judaism, and Buddhism) are represented. A myriad of ethnicities are represented, however, the only ones I can determine, other than those overrepresented in the region (e.g. Anglo-American and Scandinavian-American), are ones based on the languages I've heard at the school. I have heard Vietnamese, Chinese, French and Spanish. The languages spoken, of course, don't necessarily give me information on specific ethnicities (for instance, a French speaker could be Canadian, Hatian, or French among many other possibilities) but at least we can establish that a percentage of children at my son's school are growing up bi- or multi-lingual.<br /><br />Let me just say, that to some, this may seem like an odd exercise in face value symbology. But we would be kidding ourselves if we asserted that we live in a colorblind society and that our ideas about people are not influenced by the racial, gender, and many other types of stereotypes which we encounter just about everywhere--in the media, in books, in advertising and entertainment, in our families, etc. <br /><br />So, I was curious to see what a giant such as Scholastic was doing to educate our children, and if their book selection for the young was reinforcing or helping to shatter two categories of stereotypes in particular: gender pigeonholes and stereotypes about people of color still so prevalent in this society.<br /><br />As far as gender, I counted how many book covers featured girls and women, paying attention to the numbers of "visible minorities" (yes, indeed a subjective definition), and to what the girls were pictured doing. Were they shown in midst of interesting and varied activities or just standing there looking pretty (and pretty "useless")?<br /><br />As far as race, I took note of the number of books showing people of color, and again in what context they appeared.<br /><br />In this survey, I only focused on book covers due to a time constraint, and because it is the cover that usually determines whether parents and children choose the book to pick up, flip through, and possibly purchase. <br /><br />So, what was the Scholastic preschool/early elementary-level book selection like? Here are my findings:<br /><br />Of the nearly 300 books displayed, 75 portrayed people only, and 21 showed people and animals together. The rest of the book covers showed either only animals, a scene, a building, or nondescript characters such as aliens. So, about one-third of the books for sale featured people on the front covers. <br /><br />Of the approximately 100 covers with people on them, 20 featured "visible minorities." Of those books, 11 displayed girls or women on the front, interestingly almost always with one or more males. Four books showed people of color interacting with animals, six showed people of color alone (though I'm being generous here, because one cover was of a must-look-very-closely-to-ascertain African-American boy's arm carrying a suitcase--and I still counted it). Finally, ten, or about half, showed "visible minorities" together with whites.<br /><br />Three of the twenty books with people of color had Asian-Americans/Pacific Islanders on the cover. Yes, that's three out of 100 when my son's school has quite a few students of Asian heritage, and when the <a href="http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/41/4159000.html">Portland population</a> is more than twice that, percentage-wise. Needless to say, I was disappointed to see such underrepresentation.<br /><br />Only one of the books had a Latina on the cover (Dora, the Explorer). That's right; only one out of a hundred books showed a Latina, while Latinos, according to the US Census Bureau, represent <a href="http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/population/011910.html">fifteen percent</a> of the US population, and in the <a href="http://www.hmccoregon.com/events/downloads/pdfs/UnivisionApril212005.pdf">greater Portland Metro area</a>, depending on the location, 7 to 50% of the total local population.<br /><br />Sixteen of the twenty book covers featuring people of color showed African-Americans. <br /><br />Eight of the books with "visible minorities" on the front focused on athletes, all African-Americans, and all but one of the many athletes shown on the book cover "collages" were male sports figures. Additionally, two book covers showed Barack Obama--one where he was alone and smiling, and the other where he was smiling, surrounded by his smiling family. Are you smiling yet? <br /><br />So, let's talk more about what we see people of color doing on the book covers. The Asian girls are just standing there, one looking startled (whoa, she's not smiling!), the other... drum roll... smiling pretty. The one pair of Asian parents we are shown is smiling, climbing up and hugging a giant dinosaur. And Dora? She's at the doctor's office, sitting on the examination table with a stethoscope in her ears. Dora--pictured with a doctor who is a white woman--is, you may gasp now... smiling. And the African-American characters and personalities? Some are engrossed in sports games, others happily posing in sports jerseys. Other than sports figures, there is one black girl sitting on a bench with a book in her lap. However, she is not reading, but talking to a friend instead. And there is one black kid taking eggs out of an Easter basket. And there is that boy carrying a suitcase--his arm only, rather--because the rest of his body is on the back cover. But the remaining people of color are just standing there or jumping up into the air smiling, looking pretty. Even a photograph of Ruby Bridges on the book cover of her autobiographical story for children about being the first African-American to attend an all-white school in New Orleans, is pictured just standing there, smiling. A beautiful photo, nonetheless, but she is seen without books, pencils or anything hinting at the theme of the book. Inside, the book does have powerful photographs of the protests surrounding desegregation and of Ruby at school with her teacher and friends, but on the cover, her image is stripped of the historical context, so central to the story.<br /><br />It is interesting to note that of all the people, the athletes (and a couple of kids who look scared of ghosts or who knows what) are the only ones whose facial expressions show intensity, this while focusing on a sports game. Otherwise, all the rest of the people, and especially those of color are seen smiling and looking "non-threatening." Showing people (and animals with human-like features) in their happy-go-lucky best is a definite trend with books for this age group in general. <br /><br />Of the nearly 100 books featuring people, 39 included girls on the cover (Remember, most accompanied by boys or men). Ten of them were girls or women of color. About half the book covers with females showed girls as active and engaged in an activity, including painting, cooking, playing with dolls, performing theater, riding a horse or building a snowman. The other half of girls were pictured mostly posing with smiles on their faces. A much smaller percentage of "active" females was shown on the covers featuring women of color. <br /><br />As far as the catalogue for the book fair, designed by Scholastic, of the fifty books featured, only ONE book cover displays a person of color, an African-American girl hugging a dog she rescued.<br /><br />So, in conclusion. Are we seeing Scholastic breaking with or reinforcing gender and racial stereotypes? I must share that I am disappointed that, though a large percentage of books featured females on their covers, many of the girls, especially the girls of color, were shown not engaged in ANY interesting or meaningful activities. Instead, they were posing on the book cover, looking cute. Most of the girls shown as active were doing typically "girly" things such as art, playing with dolls, dancing or cooking. I didn't see any girls (ok, except for the one building a snowman) engaged in scientific pursuits or activities stereotypically assigned to boys, such as building, using machines or doing sports (other than one female basketball player and a horse rider). <br /><br />I was also unhappy about the relatively low numbers of books featuring people of color, and even deeper than that, that the range of activities in which "visible minorities" were shown engaging was by far much narrower than that of their white counterparts. I mean, half of all the African-American "faces" belonged to athletes. What about the scholars, the scientists, the artists, the writers, the teachers... You get the drift. <br /><br />Should I send my "analysis" to Scholastic? I think I'll do that... and report back.Terezahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01537776511607080977noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38694204.post-31365085906437507692010-02-15T10:49:00.000-08:002010-03-31T10:51:42.382-07:00Community shares grief, anger and fear following another life lost in an interaction with police<p>&ldquo;If you're shocked, you're not living in America.&rdquo;</p><br /><p>&ldquo;There are two different Portlands. There is a disparity in treatment many white people don't understand.&rdquo;</p><br /><p>&ldquo;The stinking sore of racism has been exposed. The band-aid has been pulled off, the disease needs to be treated.&rdquo;</p><br /><p>&ldquo;This is a fight for life. This is a fight for the life of my children.&rdquo;</p><br /><p>&ldquo;If you can talk about it (righting the wrong), you have to BE about it.&rdquo;</p><br /><p>The above were just some of the sentiments expressed at <em>Grief, anger and fear: Black lives lost in interactions with police, Portland's own </em>an event put on by <a href="http://www.allvoices.com/s/event-5236865/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5wb3J0bGFuZG9ubGluZS5jb20vT05JL2luZGV4LmNmbT9j PTQ1NjI3 ">Restorative Listening Project on Gentrification</a>, an organization which sponsors dialogues focusing on the &ldquo;stories and experiences of Portland's Black community and seeks to address historic and continuing harm and disparity.&rdquo;</p><br /><p>The monthly community dialogue&mdash;this time focusing on the issue of police brutality&mdash;was attended by approximately sixty Portland residents from a variety of backgrounds and of different ages, ranging from young people to veteran activists.</p><br /><p>At the forefront of everyone's mind was the recent fatal shooting by a white Portland police officer of Aaron Campbell, an unarmed 25-year-old African-American man. The police officer was acquitted by the grand jury, however Campbell's family has asked the Oregon chapter of Rev. Al Sharpton's National Action Network to conduct an independent investigation into the shooting death. The case has gotten some national attention with Rev. Jesse Jackson coming to Portland to speak and protest the police shooting on February 16.</p><br /><p>On February 15, the experiences of a number of the members of the Portland-area African-American community and their allies resounded throughout the room. Among them were stories of loved ones lost to police brutality. Emotions as well as ideas about strategies and accounts of past actions taken to affect change were shared.</p><br /><p>Campbell's grandmother spoke about the stress and grief she has been experiencing since her grandson's death on January 29th. She said: &ldquo;I keep asking myself why. Why did they have to shoot him down like a dog? He was unarmed.&rdquo;</p><br /><p>Several mothers spoke of the fear they live with; the fear of their black sons getting murdered by the police; a fear which prevents them so often from being able to sleep at night. This very fear was echoed this week in a <a href="http://www.allvoices.com/s/event-5236865/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5vcmVnb25saXZlLmNvbS9vcGluaW9uL2luZGV4LnNzZi8y MDEwLzAyL21vdGhlcnNfb2ZfYmxhY2tfbWVuX2FsbF93aWxsLmh0bWw= ">column</a> by Lisa McCall, an assistant principal in the Portland Public Schools, in Oregon's most widely circulated newspaper, The Oregonian. In the column, McCall writes:</p><br /><p>&ldquo;The tragic death of Aaron Campbell has brought home some of the worst fears the mother of a young black man could have. . . History is against us, against our sons, against our best efforts to protect them. Even in 2010, far from the injustices of the past, we are reminded that our fears are very real. . . .We are reminded that the system has failed to protect us. . . I do wish that police in Portland and around the country would think twice about their own contribution to the fear they see in a black woman's eyes when she instinctively pulls her son close to her while simply walking past a white officer on the street. . . Those good officers owe all those worried black mothers a little respect for that fear, and some public assurance they will try to never let something like this happen in Portland again."</p><br /><p>Campbell's uncle and cousin were present at the dialogue as well, both of them upset, grieving, and trying to work with the family to help them heal while also being active in rallying for change in the areas of police conduct and accountability.</p><br /><p>There have been exhaustive studies done to show empirically that people of color, <a href="http://www.allvoices.com/s/event-5236865/aHR0cDovL2JsYWNrYWdlbmRhcmVwb3J0LmNvbS8/cT1jb250ZW50L2JsYWNr LXN0cmVldHMtYW5kLXB1YmxpYy1ob3VzaW5nLWJpbGwtcmlnaHRzLWRlYWQt bGV0dGVy ">especially African-American men</a>, are <a href="http://www.allvoices.com/s/event-5236865/aHR0cDovL2NsZWFyaW5naG91c2UubWlzc291cml3ZXN0ZXJuLmVkdS9tYW51 c2NyaXB0cy80MDMucGhw ">many times more likely</a> to be searched, accused of a crime, arrested, charged, even killed by the police than any other demographic. Portland is <a href="http://www.allvoices.com/s/event-5236865/aHR0cDovL3d3dy50aGVwb3J0bGFuZGFsbGlhbmNlLm9yZy8yMDA2L2p1bHkv cmFjaWFscHJvZmlsaW5naW5wZHguaHRt ">no exception</a> to the disastrous trend of racial profiling and police brutality disproportionately affecting the Black community.</p><br /><p>&nbsp;</p><br />From the <a href="http://www.allvoices.com/s/event-5236865/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5hY2x1Lm9yZy9odW1hbi1yaWdodHNfcmFjaWFsLWp1c3Rp Y2UvcGVyc2lzdGVuY2UtcmFjaWFsLWFuZC1ldGhuaWMtcHJvZmlsaW5nLXVu aXRlZC1zdGF0ZXM= ">American Civil Liberties Union's website</a>:<br /><p>&ldquo;The practice of racial profiling by members of law enforcement at the federal, state, and local levels remains a widespread and pervasive problem throughout the United States, impacting the lives of millions of people in African American, Asian, Latino, South Asian, Arab and Muslim communities.</p><br /><p>Data and anecdotal information from across the country reveal that racial minorities continue to be unfairly victimized when authorities investigate, stop, frisk, or search individuals based upon subjective identity-based characteristics rather than identifiable evidence of illegal activity. Victims continue to be racially or ethnically profiled while they work, drive, shop, pray, travel, and stand on the street.&rdquo;</p><br /><p>As ACLU <a href="http://www.allvoices.com/s/event-5236865/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5hY2x1Lm9yZy9yYWNpYWwtanVzdGljZS9yYWNpYWwtcHJv ZmlsaW5nLWRlZmluaXRpb24= ">states</a>, the problem is that "many racial profiling victims walk away with traffic tickets, but too often for others the outcome of racial profiling is death."</p><br /><p>The ACLU report continues: "It is significant to note that research confirms the existence of bias in decisions to shoot. A series of University of California/University of Chicago studies recreated the experience of a police officer confronted with a potentially dangerous suspect, and found that:</p><br /><p>- participants fired on an armed target more quickly when the target was African American than when White, and decided not to shoot an unarmed target more quickly when the target was White than when African American; <br />- participants failed to shoot an armed target more often when that target was White than when the target was African American. If the target was unarmed, participants mistakenly shot the target more often when African American than when White; <br />- shooting bias was greater among participants who held a strong cultural stereotype of African Americans as aggressive, violent and dangerous, and among participants who reported more contact with African Americans."</p><br /><p>At the event, the ways proposed in which citizens can advocate for change included: continue community dialogue with the aim of finding solutions and healing; push for policy change on every level: city, county, state, etc; demand police accountability; work with young men to provide safe release of anger and frustration; create a support network for fathers and sons to connect emotionally and to become more involved in the community; and empower young people to get more involved in their communities (e.g. patroling the streets) with the idea of eliminating the "need" for a police presence in the neighborhood.</p><br /><p>As many of the event participants stressed, police brutality is not just a black or white issue; it's a matter of being one family and community. And in acknowledging our interconnectedness lies the imperative to look out for one another and to jointly keep the "powers that be" in check.</p><br /><p>For those wanting to show support to the grieving family and those interested in engaging in community activism surrounding the issue of police brutality, there will be a rally at Pioneer Square this Friday, February 19th at 3:00 pm.</p>Terezahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01537776511607080977noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38694204.post-21019372537987255472008-05-01T15:14:00.000-07:002008-05-01T15:19:31.475-07:00yes, I will returnYes, I am planning on returning to blogging here again. I am committed to fighting racism. I have just had a difficult several months during which a tragedy occurred in my life. Please stay tuned.Terezahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01537776511607080977noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38694204.post-60227953168146191332007-07-26T18:00:00.000-07:002007-07-26T18:03:52.973-07:00breakI am taking a break from blogging for a whole host of reasons, but I plan to be back. Thanks for checking in.Terezahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01537776511607080977noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38694204.post-20903856778161113182007-06-30T20:24:00.000-07:002007-06-30T20:45:13.761-07:00young woman displays courage at the White House<a href="http://wellesleyeducationfoundation.org/beepics/bee2006a.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px;" src="http://wellesleyeducationfoundation.org/beepics/bee2006a.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />This high school senior wins my nomination for most courageous woman of the month. Mari Oye, a recent Wellesley High graduate (pictured last year with her spelling bee colleagues on the right), won this year's federal government’s highest honor, the Presidential Scholars medal. Instead of just visiting the White House and getting her picture taken for posterity with the president - the usual routine for Presidential Scholars, Mari persuaded 49 of her 140 fellow scholars to sign a letter she and a dozen others had drafted and she had just written longhand on notebook paper, calling on President Bush to reject torture and treat terrorism suspects humanely. <br /><br />Mari says her activist spirit was influenced by her Quaker background and by grandparents on her father's side, who were in internment camps for Japanese-Americans during World War II. <br /><br />Here is the text of the letter: <br /><br /><blockquote>Mr. President.<br /><br />As members of the presidential scholars class of 2007, we have been told that we represent the best and brightest of our nation. Therefore, we believe we have a responsibility to voice our convictions. We do not want America to represent torture. We urge you to do all in your power to stop violations of the human rights of detainees, to cease illegal renditions and to apply the Geneva Convention to all detainees, including those designated enemy combatants.<br /><br />Signed</blockquote><br /><br />Read the full story <a href="http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/06/30/presidential_scholar_confronts_the_president/">here</a>.Terezahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01537776511607080977noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38694204.post-15285030448482844432007-06-28T20:32:00.001-07:002010-04-02T17:31:04.206-07:00just don't take away my TV!Hey, that's not me talking. My TV is packed up in the basement and hasn't been used in more than a year. That's the white American participants in a 2006 Ohio State University study entitled "The Cost of Being Black: White Americans' Perceptions and the Question of Reparations" speaking.<br /><br />As Margaret Kamara <a href="http://www.alternet.org/story/55404/">reports</a>: <br /><br /><blockquote>Whites of different ages and geographic regions were asked how much they deserved to be paid for living the rest of their lives as an African American.<br /><br />Respondents generally requested less than $10,000 to become black. However, they said they'd have to be paid $1 million to give up television for the rest of their lives.</blockquote><br /><br />The article continues: <br /><br /><blockquote>In another scenario, the references "white" and "America" were omitted, and participants were asked to select between being born a minority or majority in a fictional country called, "Atria." They were warned of the disadvantages that the minority group faced -- the same disparities faced by black Americans -- and they said they should be paid an average of $1 million to be born a minority.<br /><br />"When you take it out of the black-white context, white Americans seem to fully appreciate the costs associated with the kinds of disparities that African Americans actually face in the United States," (study co-author Philip) Mazzocco says. [. . .]"White Americans suffer from a glaring ignorance about what it means to live as a black American."</blockquote><br /><br />And here is more. This time, the article discusses the attitude of whites about reparations for slavery:<br /><br /><blockquote>The study also found that nearly all whites opposed reparations for slavery, saying it was "too long ago" and that the descendants of slavery don't need to be compensated.<br /><br />However, when researchers ask participants to imagine a situation in which they could be part of a reparation lawsuit that would compensate them $5,000 for an event that occurred 150 years ago to a wealthy ancestor of theirs, 61 percent agreed to be part of the lawsuit.<br /><br />This is the same percentage of blacks today that support reparations for slave descendants.</blockquote><br /><br />Wow! These are my fellow white people in America talking. Surprising? I guess not, but still deeply saddening that so many white people just don't get racism. <br /><br />And, by the way, most the reader comments under the quoted article are pretty depressing. Denial, whining and just plain racism on the part of many of the white readers. A dialog on race issues is much needed across color lines, but I am of the opinion that sometimes it's a good idea for white people to just to shut up and listen. Why the need to defend white privilege? I wish white people would just read, think, and take the results of the study as an opportunity to examine their own beliefs.Terezahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01537776511607080977noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38694204.post-74839281818683299632007-06-28T20:06:00.000-07:002007-06-28T21:51:53.304-07:00say bye bye to school diversityWe are now seeing one Supreme Court <a href="http://www.mcclatchydc.com/201/story/16401.html">ruling</a> after <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/06/21/2018/">another</a> that flies in the face of civil rights, social justice, and democracy. Today, in a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court imposed new limits on public school desegregation plans, thus making it more difficult for school districts to ensure racially integrated schools. <br /><br />As Hispanic Business News <a href="http://www.hispanicbusiness.com/news/newsbyid.asp?id=69236&cat=Headlines&more=/news/more-news.asp">reported</a>: <br /><br /><blockquote>A closely divided Supreme Court on Thursday narrowed the ability of public school districts to use race in assigning students to schools. <br /><br />Affirmative action in education survives but with tighter restrictions following the decisions in two related cases from Kentucky and Washington. Districts in Louisville and Seattle, hoping to maintain diversity, considered race when deciding what schools students can attend. <br /><br />"The school districts have not carried their heavy burden of showing that the interest they seek to achieve justifies the extreme means they have chosen," Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. wrote for a 5-4 majority. <br /><br />Roberts failed, however, to persuade five justices to go further and dismiss completely the merits of what he termed "racial balancing." <br /><br />[. . . ] Washington's Seattle School District No. 1 allowed entering ninth-graders to choose the high school they wanted. Some schools proved more popular than others. <br /><br />About 60 percent of the school district's 46,000 students were Asian, African-American, Latino or Native American. District officials said they considered race as a "tie-breaker" when assigning students, so that neighborhood schools wouldn't be segregated. <br /><br />The policy meant some white students couldn't get into the very popular Ballard and Hale high schools in north Seattle. <br /><br />Kentucky's Jefferson County Public Schools cover a broader area, educating some 97,000 students in the Louisville area. About one-third of the students are African-American. <br /><br />Unlike Seattle schools, the Jefferson County schools had also formerly been segregated. The district tried to maintain a minimum African-American enrollment of 15 percent at each of its schools, and in doing so officials refused a white student's request to be assigned to a particular school. <br /><br />[. . . ] "Together, these decisions will put an end to public schools using race as a factor to decide where children can attend public school, something that many thought was put to rest (previously)," said Sharon L. Browne, an attorney with the conservative Sacramento-based Pacific Legal Foundation. <br /><br />From the other side, 19 former chancellors of the University of California argued in an amicus brief that "racially integrated public schools strengthen the fabric of our diverse democracy."</blockquote>Terezahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01537776511607080977noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38694204.post-68742375175231738782007-06-20T10:20:00.000-07:002007-06-20T10:42:29.194-07:00Free E-Book: How to Be an Anti-Racist ParentThis book is edited by by Carmen Van Kerckhove and available on <a href="http://www.antiracistparent.com">Anti-Racist Parent.com</a>. The free, downloadable book features contributions from many members of the Anti-Racist Parent community. For more information go <a href="http://www.antiracistparent.com/2007/06/20/free-e-book-how-to-be-an-anti-racist-parent/">here</a>. I highly recommend it!Terezahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01537776511607080977noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38694204.post-58045659961809074392007-06-19T21:00:00.000-07:002007-06-20T10:02:08.139-07:00The 14th Erase Racism Carnival is here!Welcome to the June 2007 edition of the Erase Racism Carnival. Thank you to all who submitted!<br /><br />I've grouped the featured work by the following themes: <br /><br />- Race in the Media & Pop Culture <br />- Defining the Self, Discussing Whiteness & Privilege<br />- Teaching, Learning & Parenting<br />- Race & Immigration <br />- The Justice System<br /><br />I am thrilled about all the writing below, and am especially honored to host such great pieces on the topic of Race & Immigration. This is partly because I am an immigrant, and thus very close to the issue, and partly because I feel there is an enormous sense of urgency in the need to counter the rising xenophobia and racism surrounding the immigration debate in this country. Since the Erase Racism Carnival hasn't placed much emphasis on immigrant rights in the past, I thought this would be a good opportunity to highlight the issue. As XicanoPowr <a href="http://xicanopwr.com/2007/06/the-immigration-human-zoo/">writes</a> on his blog Para Justicia y Libertad: <br /><br /><blockquote>I call on every refugees, migrant and anti-racist progressive-minded people to come together in order to demonstrate that another world is possible and that solidarity, justice, brother- sisterhood and liberty are more than empty words. Now is the time not to back down. We are fighting for our lives!</blockquote><br /><br />The Erase Racism Carnival is a collection of blog posts dedicated to creating a world free of racism. The Carnival is published around the 20th of every month. The idea is to get more people blogging and/or reading about creating a world free of racism. It’s also a great way to get new readers for your blog. If you would like to host a future edition, check for availability <a href="http://allywork.solidaritydesign.net/erase-racism-carnival/">here</a> and email vegankid or Rachel with your interest. The next Carnival will be hosted by <a href="http://www.racewire.org/">RaceWire</a>, the blog of Colorlines, "the national newsmagazine on race and politics." If you'd like to submit, please do so <a href="http://blogcarnival.com/bc/cprof_303.html">here</a>.<br /><br />Now, without further ado, here are this month's features:<br /><br /><br /><strong>Race in the Media & Pop Culture</strong><br /><br />• <a href="http://halfricanrevolution.blogspot.com/2007/06/too-sense-sunday-on-hip-hop-and-acting.html">Too Sense Sunday: On Hip-hop And Acting White</a> by dnA writing on the blog Too Sense: Daily Musings on Race, Politics and Hip Hop from the nation's capitol. Here is an excerpt:<br /><br /><blockquote>The tragedy of mainstream Hip-hop is not that it questions these assumptions but that it tries, unsuccessfully, to create a mirror image of traditional white American values about hard work, gender, money, power and violence, that can be called uniquely black. The most self-destructive traits in Hip-hop are those that most closely mimic larger American culture. [. . .] Suffice it to say that the problem with mainstream Hip-hop is that it tries to be as "white" as possible while staying "black". It embraces the wider concepts of American culture but it cannot, as a consequence of African American history, accept its moral imperative. [. . .] My problem with current discussions about whiteness, and the idea of "acting white" is that few, if any, question the premise that whiteness and intelligence come together. Instead, they accept, almost universally, that whiteness, and the imitation of it, is a kind of salvation, and blackness, or the performance of it, is a kind of death.</blockquote><br /><br />• <a href="http://killbigotry.blogspot.com/2007/05/don-imus-in-40-years-precedents-and.html">Don Imus in 2047: Precedents & Presidents</a> by Charles M on the Clean Our House! - Killing Bigotry in All of US blog:<br /><br /><blockquote>Is it (the Don Imus incident) one of those watershed moments where media and race intersect that will be difficult and embarrassing to explain to our grandchildren? What will I say to my grandchild in 2047 when he/she is working on a high school term paper and stumbles upon a poll from 2007 that shows that half of all Americans thought that Imus should have kept his job?</blockquote><br /><br />• <a href="http://blackjusticeblog.blogspot.com/2007/05/black-camelot.html">Black Camelot?</a> by Josh, writing for The North Star blog.<br /><br /><blockquote>Michelle Obama does not “emasculate” Barack as she jokingly reveals his flaws, she liberates him from an imposed hypermasculine and distant identity forced upon other men, especially men of color. While I do not think this a necessary duty of a significant other, I do see it as teamwork on the part of the Obamas. [. . .] As for Ms. Dowd, I don't think she knows what to do with a strong black female who will not simply sit and smile but instead will be her own person.</blockquote><br /><br />• <a href="http://www.amptoons.com/blog/archives/2007/06/13/a-concise-history-of-black-white-relations-in-the-usa-2/">A Concise History of Black-White Relations in the U.S.A.</a>, cartoon by Barry Deutsch, aka Ampersand. <br /><br /><br /><strong>Defining the Self, Discussing Whiteness & Privilege</strong><br /><br />• <a href="http://webfarm.foliolink.com/Artists/4903/Defining_Identity.pdf ">Defining Identity</a> by Zahava Sherez, who is not a blogger, per say, but an artist who posts essays on her website. She submitted this essay. Here is an excerpt: <br /><br /><blockquote>Labels, identities and criteria used to define us are helpful for administrative and social purposes, yet I believe they also feed division, tension and oppressions. When I’m asked to check a square in a multiple-choice official form I scroll down to “Other” adding the word “Human” next to it. See, I have a problem: I am Latina, Israeli/Middle Eastern, American, Jewish, white but not really; I speak with an accent that people can’t identify – I am an enigma, an odd bird.</blockquote><br /><br />• <a href="http://thecurvature.com/2007/05/31/on-white-privilege/">On White Privilege</a> by Cara whose blog is The Curvature.<br /> <br /><blockquote>So many people do not understand the concept of "white privilege." This is still something that I, myself, am struggling to learn about and recognize in myself and come to terms with. But so many white people cannot even recognize its existence that by being white, you innately have privilege and advantage over people of color.</blockquote><br /><br />• <a href="http://www.amptoons.com/blog/archives/2007/05/23/q-since-when-is-being-criticized-like-having-your-limbs-blown-off-by-a-landmine-a-since-that-criticism-came-from-someone-with-less-privilege-than-you/">Q: Since When Is Being Criticized Like Having Your Limbs Blown Off by a Landmine? A: Since That Criticism Came from Someone with Less Privilege Than You</a> written by Mandolin on Alas! a blog.<br /><br /><blockquote>Criticism is not fists, but people really seem to perceive it that way. And the less privilege the person who’s making the criticism has, the more it feels like an attack. </blockquote><br /><br />• <a href="http://2xconsciousness.blogspot.com/2007/05/xpress-newspaper-example-of-white_402.html">[X]Press Newspaper: An Example of White Privilege and Ignorance: An Analysis</a> by Jack Stephens on the blog Double Consciousness. This is a piece which deconstructs an article pulished in the college newspaper in which Jack works. Here he exposes the writer's argument as rooted in white hetero-sexual male privilege. Jack also posted a piece on the reactions to his challenge of the author's argument <a href="http://2xconsciousness.blogspot.com/2007/06/response-to-response-to-post-about.html">here</a>.<br /><br /><blockquote>Discussions and talks on diversity are there to challenge our assumptions based on people's race. In a society that is saturated in white privilege and heterosexual privilege we never encounter real genuine discussions on issues such as race and diversity in the newsroom because we are blind to it. It is ingrained in us to see white as the norm, heterosexuality as the norm, etc. So when there are a bunch of white people in the newsroom and in the paper we don't question it or see anything wrong with it because that is what we've been taught to see as normal growing up (subconsciously and consciously). This is why we need to bring up questions of diversity in the workplace, newsroom, etc. because no one is there to bring them up.</blockquote><br /> <br /><br /><strong>Teaching, Learning & Parenting</strong><br /><br />• <a href="http://www.raceintheworkplace.com/2007/05/29/diversity-training-doesnt-work-heres-why/">Diversity Training Doesn't Work. Here Is Why</a> by Carmen Van Kerckhove, posted on her Race in the Workplace blog.<br /><br /><blockquote>The truth is, I believe that most diversity training doesn’t work. Why not? Because so many diversity trainers focus on all the wrong thing.</blockquote><br /><br />• <a href="http://multiracialsky.wordpress.com/2007/05/24/africa-is-not-a-country/">Africa Is Not a Country</a> by Natasha Sky of the Multiracial Family Life blog:<br /><br /><blockquote>In the brief meet-and-greet with the kindergarten teachers following the presentation, I asked my questions. What exactly were the kindergarteners studying during the “Africa” unit? (Mostly animals.) Were they studying a particular area of the continent of Africa, or a specific country? (No.)</blockquote><br /><br />• <a href="http://www.rachelstavern.com/?p=586">Pass With Care: Modern Day Racial “Passing”</a> by Lyonside posted on Rachel's Tavern.<br /> <br /><blockquote>Recently I guest-blogged about some initial reactions to my infant daughter’s appearance, and I had to face facts: my baby girl at some point in her life, knowingly or not, will likely pass for non-Latino white. In her first three months, I’ve dealt with two overtly racial instances on her behalf – one was an honest mistake, the other was racist, and the two incidents were dealt with accordingly. I’m catching myself second-guessing every compliment about her appearance – what are they seeing? What are they really commenting on?</blockquote><br /><br /><br /><br /><strong>Race & Immigration</strong><br /><br />• <a href="http://www.kaichang.net/2007/05/immigrant_dream.html">Immigrant Dreams and Nightmares in the White Supremacist Cauldron</a> written by Kai Chang on his blog Zuky: Open mind and open hand strike.<br /><br /><blockquote>Chinese Americans never forget the fact that the Statue of Liberty faces out across the Atlantic Ocean, towards Europe. The tired, the poor, the huddled masses of dream-hungry immigrants coming across the Pacific — like those coming across the deserts and rivers along the Southern US border — have never been greeted by a Mother of Exiles. More often than not, they have been greeted by racist policies and laws, xenophobic hatred, and white supremacist violence.</blockquote><br /><br /><br />• <a href="http://the-fourth-world.blogspot.com/2007/05/public-terror-escalating-war-on.html">Public Terror: Escalating the War on Migrants</a> by Juan Santos and Leslie Radford, posted on Juan's blog The Fourth World.<br /><br /><blockquote>Last year, in 2006, millions of migrant and their allies – their familia – took the streets, giving birth to the most powerful mass movement in the U.S. since the Civil Rights and Black Power movements of the 1960s and 70s. <br /><br />The new movement stunned the US ruling class, drove the deepest of wedges straight into the heart of a seemingly unstoppable neo–con drive toward fascism, exposed the essential brutality and racism at the core of the Republican, neo–con agenda, began the public unraveling of the Bush regime, and opened the door to the stunning exposure, repudiation and defeat of the neo-cons in the House and Senate, who had led the racist charge to make felons of all undocumented migrants – and of anyone who so much as gave a ride to someone undocumented. <br /><br />And like their counterparts in the 60s era, the reactionaries of today saw the unmistakable outlines of the threat presented by brown resistance to their power and their drive toward a fascistic state. Like the reactionaries of that era, they moved to kill the movement with mass arrests and state intimidation. Only this time, it wasn’t the FBI, COINTELPRO, the murders or imprisonment of Black leaders, or the mass incarceration of Black and other peoples of color that the State relied on. This time, it was the department of Homeland Security, ICE, and a strategy of direct vengeance – the deliberate terrorization of the millions who had taken the streets and who had precipitated the collapse of the neo-fascist juggernaut.</blockquote> <br /><br />• <a href="http://xicanopwr.com/2007/06/the-immigration-human-zoo/">The Immigration Human Zoo</a> written by XicanoPwr on his blog Para Justicia y Libertad!<br /><br /><blockquote>Since 9/11, protecting the American imperial “homeland” has become an essential priority for the Bush administration. The creation and cultivation of fear is one of the pillars of empire within the “homeland.” Threats of terrorism and twelve million “illegal” immigrants are being used to maintain the government’s threat of discipline, punishment, and violence here in the US. [. . .] Today’s menacing symbol that is dominating our newspapers, flood broadcast channels, and fuel political campaigns - the barbarian Brown hordes threatening to crash the gates and destroy the foundations of civilization - are the undocumented immigrants.</blockquote><br /><br /><br />• <a href="http://mexfiles.wordpress.com/2007/06/08/immigrants-aren’t-so-taxing/">Immigrants aren't so taxing</a> by Richard Grabman posted on his blog The Mex Files.<br /><br /><blockquote>Undocumented immigrants aren’t taxing the health care system as much as people think, according to a report released Thursday from the liberal Center for American Progress.</blockquote><br /><br /><br /><br /><strong>The Justice System</strong><br /><br />• <a href="http://whyaminotsurprised.blogspot.com/2007/05/billy-ray-johnson-finally-won.html">Billy Ray Johnson Finally "Won"</a> by Changeseeker on her blog Why Am I Not Surprised? <br /><br /><blockquote>The fact is that none of these good ol' boys went to prison, where they would have been doled out a regular dose of retribution in the general population, assuming they lived through the orientation process. They got off, just like Emmett Till's murderers got off in 1955. And Billy Ray Johnson and his family are the ones who will continue to suffer, not to mention other people of color who know better than to think this means they're protected by the laws in the U.S. of A.</blockquote><br /><br /> <br />• <a href="http://xicanopwr.com/2007/06/the-racist-heiress-america-loves-and-hate-and-our-criminal-justice-system/">The Racist Heiress America Loves and Hates and Our Criminal Justice System</a> by XicanoPwr <br /><br /><blockquote>Why does America continue to consider Pair Hilton’s escapades newsworthy? How is it possible that a socialite’s fate is considered more important over issues like immigration, the G8 summit, global warming, or other world affecting news??? [. . .] The intersection of racial dynamics within the criminal justice system has long been a concern. The problem of whether those in prison tend to be drawn from the ranks of the poor, unemployed, and low social status is indicative of willful discrimination against the underprivileged.</blockquote><br /><br />Thanks for stopping by and reading all these great features. Don't forget to submit for the next issue <a href="http://blogcarnival.com/bc/cprof_303.html">here</a>!Terezahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01537776511607080977noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38694204.post-59296882938015627362007-06-18T22:30:00.000-07:002007-06-19T20:54:22.655-07:00"Searching the minds of American Muslims"About a month ago, on May 22, the Pew Research Center released a report on Muslim Americans entitled <a href="http://pewresearch.org/pubs/483/muslim-americans">Muslim Americans: Middle Class and Mostly Mainstream</a>. Headlines announcing the results and commentary on the study continue to appear in the press. <br /><br />They include major news outlet headlines such as these: <br /><br />Troubling signs in poll on Muslims in America (LA Daily News)<br />Pew Poll finds some US Muslims support suicide bombing (Reuters)<br />Poll: 1 in 4 U.S. Young Muslims OK With Homicide Bombings Against Civilians (FOX)<br />Some U.S. Muslims Approve Suicide Strikes (MSNBC)<br />Poll: 26% Of Young US Muslims OK Bombs (CBS News)<br /><br />and columns in smaller papers (in order from the "oh-good, we-in-White-Christian-America-can-breathe-easier" to the "beware-of-Satan-lurking-in our-midst" type headlines): <br /><br />Good News: American Muslims are mainstream (Southern California InFocus)<br />Searching the minds of American Muslims (Star Tribune)<br />Muslim first, Arab second, American third (Baltimore Sun)<br />America must not ignore a dangerous percentage (Laurel Leader Call)<br />Recognize the Islamic threat (Ranaoke Times)<br /><br /><br />You can see for yourself. Just do a Google news search. Yikes! Just what American Muslims need - more sensationalism and more media-ignited bigotry. <br /><br />I wasn't satisfied with the headlines that popped up and searched for alternative information on this study. <br /><br />Abdus Sattar Ghazali, Executive Editor of the online magazine American Muslim Perspective, made some interesting points about the Pew study. In his article, <a href="http://www.theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/hidden_agenda_of_pew_centers_million_dollar_survey_of_american_muslims/0014010">"Hidden agenda of PEW Center’s million dollar survey of American Muslims"</a>, for The American Muslim, argues that the report grossly undercounts the Muslim population in this country by as much as sixty percent, putting the total of U.S. Muslims at 2.4 million instead of the 6 or 7 estimated by many researchers and Muslim organizations.<br /><br />This undercount, maintains Mr. Ghazali, constitutes "the latest attempt to undercut the influence of American Muslims." This undercount has a strong political basis, Ghazali argues. He writes:<br /><br /><blockquote>Religious denominations, like all interest groups, can gain or lose political clout based on perceptions of their size, according to J. Gordon Melton, director of the Institute for the Study of American Religion in Santa Barbara, Calif. In the case of the U.S. Muslim community, Melton says, its efforts to influence policy in the Middle East would get a boost if it were viewed as being larger than the country’s Jewish population, which is estimated at 6 million. “It’s a political question: How does it sway votes?” he argued.</blockquote><br /><br />Ghazali further cites David Harris, The American Jewish Committee’s executive director, who has "warned that the increasingly visible American Muslim lobby posed a challenge to U.S.-Israel relations."<br /><br />It's always interesting to read a variety of analyses.<br /><br />Again, Ghazali's article reminds me of my earlier piece on the <a href="http://whiteantiracistparent.blogspot.com/2007/06/you-incense-us-cenus.html">census</a>. Undercounting generally hurts the undercounted groups, but often benefits those asking the survey questions - those in power. <br /><br />And the role of the media? If the mainstream media can maintain the general populace's paranoia regarding the Muslims, then maybe the Bush administration can continue to rage its War on Terror largely unquestioned?Terezahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01537776511607080977noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38694204.post-46486645565411962572007-06-14T18:28:00.000-07:002007-06-14T18:30:34.037-07:00shameless plugI just participated in the 50 Voices of Equality campaign, "a public education campaign by the Basic Rights Education Fund (BREF). BREF's mission is to build community through education and advocacy and to end discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in Oregon."<br /><br />As a volunteer I interviewed prominent Oregonians dedicated to working against discrimination. After the interviews, I wrote copy for the campaign's website. <br /><br />I interviewed Oregon Senator Frank Morse and activist Lew Frederick. I will be interviewing State Representative Judy Uherbelau later this month. So, go to <a href="http://www.50voicesforequality.com/">50voicesforequality.com</a>, click on meet the 50 voices, and you will see the pieces I did.Terezahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01537776511607080977noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38694204.post-82728786672031267712007-06-07T21:44:00.000-07:002007-06-08T11:30:57.673-07:00Mohammed is the new Jack in BritainI was tickled by this <a href="http://rawstory.com/news/afp/Mohammed_likely_to_top_British_boys_06072007.html">news item</a>, as some older folks might say. <br /><br /><blockquote>Mohammed will likely become the most popular name for baby boys in Britain by the end of the year, local media reported on Wednesday, citing government data.<br /><br />Though official records from the Office for National Statistics list the spelling Mohammed 23rd in its yearly analysis of the top 3,000 names given to children, when all the different spellings of the name are taken into account, it ranks second, only behind Jack, according to The Times.</blockquote><br /><br />For all those deniers of diversity, this is yet more proof that Europe is not the monolithic white Christian continent many seem to believe it to be. And trust me, I hear Europe alluded to in this way quite a bit. Wake up! This is the Europe of the 21st century!Terezahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01537776511607080977noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38694204.post-8152359389542621032007-06-07T16:46:00.000-07:002007-06-07T18:06:35.193-07:00voter registration bluesToday I came across an <a href=" http://www.centredaily.com/news/nation/story/118170.html ">article</a> exposing the fact that hundreds of public-assistance agencies had illegally failed to offer voter registration to their mostly poor and minority clients. <br /><br />In 1993, Congress passed the National Voter Registration Act, which imposed the requirement that public-assistance agencies provide voter registration services for their clients. However, there is strong evidence that "after these agencies registered 2.6 million people to vote in 1995-1996, the total registered plunged to about 1 million in 2003-2004." This according to Greg Gordon <a href=" http://www.centredaily.com/news/nation/story/118170.html">reporting</a> for McClatchy Newspapers.<br /><br />"Tennessee, Colorado and Maryland," writes Gordon, "are the only states whose registration numbers didn't decline from figures eight years earlier." <br /><br />Michael Slater, the Oregon-based deputy director of the national registration group Project Vote, maintains that the Justice Department's civil rights division failed to enforce that part of the law. <br /><br />Officials for three voter and civil rights groups, as well as former lawyers in the division, all of whom challenged the Justice Department in 2004, armed with evidence that this infringement was indeed the case, said that the Justice Department "has largely ignored the voter registration sections of the law while aggressively using a narrower provision to sue or threaten to sue states that have failed to purge the names of allegedly ineligible people from voter rolls." The groups coming forth were Project Vote; Demos, a New York-based think tank; and People for the American Way, a civil rights group.<br /><br />The Department, of course, insists that the civil rights division "vigorously defends all the voting laws it is charged with enforcing." <br /><br />A report on the failure of nearly every state to comply with the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) came out in July 2005, and is available <a href="http://www.realcities.com/multimedia/nationalchannel/archive/mcw/pdf/Gordon-10years.pdf">here</a>. As the introduction states, "the report offers both a review of the as yet unfulfilled promise of the NVRA in public assistance agencies in the statute's first decade and a plan of action for recomitting ourselves to fulfilling the promise in the months and years ahead."<br /><br />There is so much orchestrated manipulation done to ensure liberal-leaning voters don't vote, it's disgusting. From voter roll purges, computer "glitches" to voter intimidation. Not just that, numerous new restrictive voter registration laws have been passed in many states. In addition to all those barriers to voting, now we have "non-compliance" with federal law from social service agencies. <br /><br />Let's look at some of these strategies in a little more detail. <br /><br />According to Jordan Green's report DOJ ACTIONS ON ELECTION LAW BENEFIT REPUBLICANS, "the Center for Voting Rights and Protection describes Republican vote suppression as combining several tactics: making loud and unsubstantiated claims about vote fraud in predominantly minority precincts; running campaigns of misinformation or fear that target vulnerable minority constituencies; posting armed and uniformed off-duty police officers outside of polling places; photographing, tape-recording or videotaping voters; and using aggressive, face-to-face challenging techniques at polls."<br /><br />Here is an example from Green's report of a strategy designed to disenfranchise largely Democrat-voting minority voters: <br /><br /><blockquote>The DOJ has focused significant resources on protecting language minority rights at the polls, but in its handling of provisional ballot issues – which affect the voting rights of students and immigrants who are expected to largely vote Democratic – the department has pursued a strategy of partisan disenfranchisement by narrowing access to the polls.<br /><br />. . . Making sure every eligible voter is able to cast a ballot in free and fair elections is the job of the Voting Section of the Department of Justice. Included in the Voting Section’s mandate is enforcement of “statutory provisions designed to safeguard the right to vote of racial and language minorities, disabled and illiterate persons, overseas citizens, persons who change their residence shortly before a Presidential election, and persons 18 to 20 years of age.” These are some of the voters expected to rely on provisional ballots the most.<br /><br />The Voting Section, under the umbrella of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, has taken what could be considered a “states’ rights” position on provisional balloting. The department sided in late October (2004) with three Republican state election officials in the courts in defense of the most restrictive interpretation of who gets to vote by provisional ballot.</blockquote><br /><br />In a 2004 report assessing President Bush’s civil rights record, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights stated: “History offers myriad examples of using equipment, people and processes to manipulate elections and disenfranchise voters. If measured by the pace at which it enacted and funded HAVA, or is promoting implementation, the administration appears unmotivated by political pressure, sense of duty, morality, law, or personal agenda to ensure that America has robust, well-designed election systems to preserve the vote, the bedrock of the nation’s democracy.”<br /><br />HAVA is the Help America Vote Act, a law passed by Congress in 2002. Under HAVA, voters who believe they are registered, but whose names are not on the rolls are entitled to cast “provisional ballots,” which will be counted (or not) later, once their eligibility is confirmed. This again according to Green.<br /><br />Voting issues are also at the forefront of the ongoing U.S. attorneys scandal. As Bernard Weiner of Dissident Voice <a href="http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2007/06/bush-scandals/">writes</a>, "The DOJ, it turns out, is basically run as an arm of the White House’s political operation: inquiring about ideology and party affiliation (which is illegal) before appointing applicants to judicial jobs, staffing the Civil Rights Division with those antagonistic to civil rights and thus not following the law, etc. And other government agencies are similarly infected as well, holding workplace seminars on ways to aid 'our candidates,' which is also illegal."<br /><br />As Barry Grey <a href="http://www.wsws.org/articles/2007/jun2007/just-j07.shtml">reports</a> in his article entitled Testimony by Justice Department official sheds light on White House conspiracy to manipulate elections, published today on the World Socialist Website:<br /><br /><blockquote>The testimony of a senior Justice Department official before the Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday provided new insight into the anti-democratic political conspiracy, orchestrated from the White House, that lies at the heart of last year’s purge of nine US attorneys.<br /><br />The main witness at the hearing, Bradley J. Schlozman, has played a significant role in implementing the Bush administration’s strategy of packing the Justice Department’s legal staff, including the country’s top federal prosecutors, with right-wing Republicans for the purpose of disenfranchising Democratic voters, intimidating Democratic-leaning interest groups, and manipulating elections.<br /><br />The purge of US attorneys was carried out to pursue a policy of bringing trumped-up voting fraud charges to cripple voter registration drives in poor and minority communities and throw likely Democratic voters off of registration rolls in key “battleground” states.<br /><br />It is an effort to expand on a national scale the methods that were used to disenfranchise working class voters in the disputed Florida election of 2000, which resulted in the theft of the presidential election and the installation of Bush in the White House.<br /><br />Schlozman, 36, is one of a group of right-wing lawyers who were recruited into the Justice Department after Bush took office and rapidly elevated to high positions. As a top official in the Justice Department’s civil rights division—for five months in 2005 he was acting head of the division—Schlozman purged long-time career lawyers and replaced them with lawyers recruited from Republican organizations such as the Federalist Society and the Heritage Foundation.</blockquote> <br /><br />There you have it. Plus, there was the not-to-be-missed witness testimony by DOJ's Monica Gooding two weeks ago, in which she referred to "vote caging" possibly done by the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, Tim Griffin. Griffin, during the 2000 Bush-Cheney campaign, incidently worked as deputy research director for the Republican National Committee (RNC) conducting “oppo” (opposition) research.<br /><br />"Vote caging," <a href="http://www.slate.com/id/2167284/">writes</a> Dahlia Lithwick of Slate Magazine, "is an illegal trick to suppress minority voters (who tend to vote Democrat) by getting them knocked off the voter rolls if they fail to answer registered mail sent to homes they aren't living at (because they are, say, at college or at war)."<br /><br />Journalist Greg Palast, who has written about the Republican practice of caging during the 2004 Presidential elections extensively, "supplies evidence linking Tim Griffin . . . to this caging plot," writes Lithwick. "Specifically, a series of confidential e-mails to Republican Party muckety-mucks with the suggestive heading 'RE: caging.' The e-mails were accidentally sent to a <a href="http://2004.georgewbush.org/deadletteroffice/">George Bush parody site</a>. They also contained suggestively named spreadsheets, headed 'caging' as well. The names on the lists are what Palast's researchers deemed to be homeless men and soldiers deployed in Iraq. <a href="http://www.bradblog.com/?p=4594">Here</a> are the e-mails. <br /><br />So, the saga of systemic disenfranchisement of predominantly Democrat-voting minority and poor voters continues to unfold. <br /><br />I predict the next presidential election will be a mess.Terezahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01537776511607080977noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38694204.post-89467155830224842352007-06-07T16:34:00.000-07:002007-06-07T16:43:03.434-07:00the importance of challenging systemic racismI am reading <i>Uprooting Racism: How white people can work towards racial justice</i>. It's an excellent book that is a must read for all white people wanting to commit to challenging racism. <br /><br />Here is a quote I want to share: <br /><br /><blockquote>"Issues of social justice are not fundamentally about individual actions and beliefs. . . White racism . . . is a social system. Although my personal attitudes and actions can either support or confront racism, racism is completely independent of me. In fact, even if most of us were completely non-racist in our attitudes, there are many ways that unequal wages, unequal treatment in the legal system and segregation in jobs, housing and education would continue. <br /><br />Our beliefs and actions are important. We are responsible for how we treat the people around us and whether or not we are fighting against injustice or contributing to it. But as long as we focus only on individual actions and ignore community and organizational responses, we will leave a system of racism intact."</blockquote> <br /><br />The more I learn about how racism works, the more I am challenged to see the larger picture and to envision myself involved in uprooting institutional racism. It is an overwhelming thought, indeed, but the only way to really right the wrongs of racism. I am not sure specifically how I will eventually be involved in the work on dismantling systemic racism, but for now, I am beginning with educating myself and simultaneously those in my circles as well as those who read this blog. Occasionally, I also write a letter to the editor. I have a few on the back burner. I know when the time is right, that the right path will manifest itself and lead me towards work on a larger scale.Terezahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01537776511607080977noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38694204.post-8915097277713003182007-06-06T21:52:00.000-07:002007-06-07T08:02:54.686-07:00you incense us, cenusThe chairman of the African-American Advisory Committee to the U.S. Census said today that more than 700,000 blacks were not counted nationwide in the 2000 Census.<br /><br />Whoa! A teeny <a href="http://www.timesfreepress.com/absolutenm/templates/breaking.aspx?articleid=16383&zoneid=41">blurb</a> I happened to come across in my daily Google news search, but what a huge number of people! Upon doing a little research on this, I realized this was <a href="http://www.civilrights.org/press_room/buzz_clips/census-missed-poor-and-minorities-most.html">old news</a>, but back in 2002 when the numbers were released, I was not paying attention.<br /><br />The 2000 census reported the number of African-Americans living in the U.S. to be <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African-American">36.6 million</a>, or 12.3% of the total population. So 700,000 or 750,000 people, as other sources claim, means nearly 2% of the black population went uncounted.<br /><br />It is typical of a census to undercount the poor and minorities. However, in the 2000 census, Blacks were undercounted at a rate almost <a href="http://www.civilrights.org/press_room/buzz_clips/census-missed-poor-and-minorities-most.html">twice the national average</a>. While about six million Americans, most of them poor or of color, went uncounted in the last census, three million Americans were counted twice. The latter population, predictably, tended to be affluent and live in suburban areas. Still, the 2000 census was more accurate than the previous.<br /><br />This undercounting is significant in so many ways. Census results are used to allocate Congressional seats ("congressional apportionment"), electoral votes, and government program funding for schools, crime prevention, health care, and transportation.<br /><br />As PBS's NewsHour Extra webiste geared towards kids puts it: "Census numbers determine 80 percent of federal grants and the number of states' congressional representatives. Whoever has the people gets the money and the representatives, so poorer urban areas, and extremely rural areas, which tend to be undercounted, are likely to be denied millions and underrepresented."<br /><br />Why are people of color disproportionately undercounted? Civilrights.org provides this <a href="http://www.civilrights.org/research_center/census/6_1.html">answer</a>: <br /><br /><blockquote>There are several reasons why people of color and the poor are consistently and disproportionately undercounted by the census including: 1) mail and door-to-door collection methods have lower response rates in lower income areas; 2) lower education levels , illiteracy, or difficulty with the English language affect the ability of many individuals to understand the census; 3) a general misunderstanding of the importance of census participation; and, 4) distrust or suspicion of government leading to the fear that the census may be used by immigration and/or law enforcement officials to deport or incarcerate or may disqualify one for social welfare programs.</blockquote><br /><br />There is, of course, plenty of reason to be suspiciuos of the government and of the way that census data may be used to oppress or disenfranchise people. Census data has been used for all kinds of dirty purposes.<br /><br />For example, the 1990 US census data, along with the records of 439,381 Northwest passengers were used by Northwest Airlines to find "'outliers', people that do not conform to predetermined norms and therefore could be a 'threat'," as reported on <a href="http://www.dontspyon.us/census.html">Don'tSpyOn.us</a>.<br /><br />Apparently, "the Northwest Airlines passenger data was turned over by the airline, without the knowledge or permission of the passengers concerned, and given to NASA's Ames Research Center." In other words, the government used census data to single-out and profile Americans.<br /><br />So, how did the 2000 undercount, specifially, affect policy?<br /><br />In January 1999, the Supreme Court ruled out the use of statistical sampling to adjust the 2000 census to make up for an expected undercount. As CNN <a href="http://www.cnn.com/US/9901/25/scotus.census.02/">reported</a>, "the 5-4 ruling was a defeat for the Clinton administration, which had hoped statistical sampling would add population -- and subsequently House members -- to areas that traditionally vote Democratic."<br /><br />The CNN article continutes: "The ruling specifically barred the use of statistical sampling for apportionment."<br /><br />Numerous interest groups worked to challenge the 2000 census. These groups were less concerned with apportionment and more with the "distribution of federal and state aid; particularly federal block grants," write professor Swanson and Walashek in their paper entitled, The Historical Roots of Contentious Litigation Over Census Counts in the Late 20th Century. <br /><br />They continue: <br /><br /><blockquote>The appropriated federal block grants for Native American housing in 2003 totaled $649 million with an additional $4,937 million for community development. It is easy to see why more than 100 Indian tribes, complaining of undercount, challenged the 2000 census results and conducted their own head counts. The tribes pointed out that the 2000 census counted 3,334 people at Warm Springs, Oregon, of which 3,018 were Indians. According to tribal registries however, 3,220 tribal members live on the reservation, suggesting that the 2000 census missed 504 Warm Springs tribal members, for an error undercount rate of 14 percent. “We’re being shorted on funding,” they said. “The numbers [the Census Bureau] have are totally inaccurate. We’re doing our census to get the money we’re owed.” This sentiment is not confined to residents of the Warm Springs Reservation.</blockquote><br /><br />Is there hope for improvement in the responsiveness during the next census? With the anti-immigrant sentiment growing, the tragedy of Katrina, and the echos of Black voter disenfranchisement in the last major elections still reverbarating; with the increasing erosions by this administration of Americans' civil rights and its incessant appetite for spying on its own citizens, I don't see how trust between the government and the undercounted groups could possibly be increasing. <br /><br />Is there a chance that accuracy of the count in the 2010 census could improve? According to the <a href="http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FA0710F73C550C738DDDAC0894DF404482&n=Top%2fReference%2fTimes%20Topics%2fPeople%2fB%2fBush%2c%20George%20W%2e">New York Times</a>, the Census Bureau requested $18 million for the 2008 budget, so "it can begin its partnership program, part of strategy to improve undercounts for minorities," but the Bush administration allocated nothing to the Bureau for those purposes. <br /><br />As blogger bobster writes on the statesman blog, "the 140,000 partnerships the Bureau established before the 2000 census resulted in better minority counts, reducing African-American undercounts from 4.57% to 1.84%. Undercounts for Asians, Hispanics, and Native Americans (also diminished - my editorial change). The partnerships were with state, local, and tribal govenments, churches, schools, corporations, and community service groups. To refuse to fund these partnerships in the coming census means the Bush/Cheney/Rove government prefers that only white people get counted and that the count leans heavily toward Republicans."<br /><br />I couldn't have said it better.<br /><br />The census is such a double-edged sword. Communities need to be accurately counted in order to be allocated the funds to which they are entitled, but who's supposed to trust Big Brother when he acts like The Great Dictator?Terezahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01537776511607080977noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38694204.post-61738149293599070082007-06-06T11:02:00.000-07:002007-06-06T13:02:46.600-07:00Do "white schools" make white kids racist?Last month, ABC News <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=3200868&page=1&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312">reported</a> on a study of elementary and high school students, aimed at finding out whether children use race to socially exclude other children from their groups.<br /><br />The study of nearly 700 fourth, seventh, and 10th graders of different ethnic and racial backgrounds living in the mid-Atlantic region found that "children and adolescents who had friends from different ethnic backgrounds were significantly more likely to say it is wrong to exclude someone because of their race, citing unfairness or hurting the feelings of the excluded child as reasons."<br /><br />"In contrast," the article continues, "students who reported few or no cross-race friendships were significantly less likely to view excluding someone on the basis of race as wrong. Their reasons were often based on a lack of familiarity, such as, 'They won't have much in common.'"<br /><br />Specifically, "European-American children attending 'all-white' schools were more likely than European-American children attending 'mixed ethnicity' schools to use stereotypes when explaining why someone might not be friends with someone, or invite them home to their house, solely because of their race."<br /><br />This is interesting. At first glance, it makes sense. However, I wonder about the conclusions that can be drawn from this study. Some of the most enlightened white anti-racist activists whose work I read, respect, and learn from, grew up in very homogenous surroundings, comprising of almost only white people. Vegankid, for example, who is part of the <a href="http://allywork.solidaritydesign.net/">Ally Work collective</a>, grew up in a small town with only two families of color. It was Vegankid's sexual identity and his experience as a Queer person that acted as a brigde for his developing of empathy for those affected by racism. You can read Vegankid's Learning Empathy story <a href="http://allywork.solidaritydesign.net/index.php?s=approximating">here</a>.<br /><br />Like Vegankid, Rachel of <a href="http://www.rachelstavern.com/">Rachel's Tavern</a>, another brilliant anti-racist activist and blogger, grew up around all whites, and her parents, like Vegankid's taught her to treat everyone with respect and dignity. In her piece, <a href="http://allywork.solidaritydesign.net/index.php?s=approximating">Racism and Empathy: Some of My Approximating Experiences</a>, she remembers challenging her white classmates on their racism. For that, she was called a “nigger lover” and threatened. As a result of these experiences, she began to develop a sense of empathy towards people of color. She writes: "I am by no means saying I get everything. I just know what I felt like when these things were directed at me. I knew the fear, the powerlessness, the exasperation, and the anger that racism was creating in me. Because of these experiences (and others), I dedicated myself to fighting racism."<br /><br />I guess my thoughts on whether integration is really key to lessening racial prejudice in children are mixed. Of course, having friends of color inevitably leads to empathy for those affected by racism, however, maybe the logic in this study is faulty. <br /><br />I think the failure is in the fact that racism among whites is rarely discussed. White children, in general, receive virtually no anti-racist education. White privilege allows whites to not have to think about race and racism unless directly confronted with it. White children who have friends of color are probably more likely to learn about racism and discuss it in their circles. But this doesn't have to be the case. <br /><br />As seen in the two stories above, it is completely possible to develop an anti-racist consciousness in a predominantly white environment. <br /><br />I am by no means advocating segragation. What I am saying is that many people do not have a choice. They live where they live, they go to school where they go to school. Still, lack of a racially diverse environment doesn't and shouldn't have to be an indicator of the degree of race awareness and empathy. <br /><br />Though I live in the whitest major city in the U.S., though I grew up in a predominantly white society, and though I am married to a white man with whom I have a white child, I feel a moral responsibility to work on helping to eliminate racism. Why couldn't most white children develop the same kind of desire and turn a future study like this on its head? What's stopping them? I am apt to think it's the white adults in their lives who benefit from White Supremacy and white privilege too much to rock the boat. I don't want to be one of those people and I am working very hard to counter, on the one hand, the reality reflected in this study and, on the other, the very stereotype of the bigoted, racist, and ignorant white person from Whiteville that this study perpetuates.Terezahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01537776511607080977noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38694204.post-11716351718818054742007-06-02T23:40:00.000-07:002007-06-02T23:39:51.376-07:00Erase Racism Carnival - send me your submissions!I am happy to announce that White Anti-Racist Parent is hosting the June issue of Erase Racism Carnival.<br /><br />The Erase Racism Carnival is a collection of blog posts dedicated to creating a world free of racism. The Carnival is published around the 20th of every month.<br /><br />You can check out the current issue, hosted by Angry Black Woman, <a href="http://theangryblackwoman.wordpress.com/2007/05/21/may-2007-erase-racism-carnival/">here</a>.<br /><br />It is now time to send in your submissions! <strong>All, not just white anti-racist parents, are welcome to submit work</strong>. To submit a post written by you or someone else, go <a href="http://blogcarnival.com/bc/cprof_303.html">here</a> and click on “submit your blog article to this carnival”. Along with the URL of the article, be sure to include your name and email. You can also send me your submition at warpblog at gmail dot com.<br /><br />This is a traveling carnival. The idea is to get more people blogging and/or reading about creating a world free of racism. More info about the carnival and how you can become a host can be found <a href="http://allywork.solidaritydesign.net/erase-racism-carnival/">here</a>. <br /><br />Can't wait to read your work!Terezahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01537776511607080977noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38694204.post-61340767338060430232007-06-02T23:20:00.000-07:002007-06-03T10:30:44.283-07:00Supreme Court ruling severly limits recourse against workplace discriminationLast Tuesday, May 29, the Supreme Court ruled to restrict time limits on workers filing discrimination complaints. Employees who decide to sue their employer on the basis of workplace discrimination, now have six months to file their case. In other words, according to the <a href="http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/newssentinel/news/editorial/17295963.htm">News Sentinel</a>, "employees can't reach more than six months back in time to complain about discriminatory practices." <br /><br />"The ruling essentially says tough luck to employees who don't immediately challenge their employer's discriminatory acts, even if the discrimination continues to the present time," said Marcia Greenberger, co-president of the National Women's Law Center quoted in the News Sentinel article.<br /><br />This is a huge set back particularly for women and people of color. Here is yet another example of the current administration's attack on our civil rights.Terezahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01537776511607080977noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38694204.post-45127282026216727112007-05-27T22:42:00.000-07:002007-05-29T12:42:01.956-07:00The global nature of racism - Part II: Global WarmingLet me preface this post with a pet pieve of mine: why is it that once the Republican spinsters - you know the wordsmiths like <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Luntz">Frank Luntz</a> whom the party employs to coin their euphemisms in order to deflect heat from key issues - why is it that once terms get purposefuly and strategically changed by conservatives, many liberals adopt them instantly without a second thought, thus lubricating the conservative machine? I hear this on NPR and Air America all the time. <br /><br />One example is abortion rights. Abortion rights used to be called "reproductive rights" or "reproductive justice," and "pro-abortion" used to be "pro-choice." The terms "abortion rights" or "pro-abortion "just don't sound right. They make it seem like all that pro-choice people want is abortions. Not so. These new terms antagonize opposing sides even more and narrow the debate. They are meant to repulse. Not helpful. So, if you are pro-reproductive rights and pro-choice, I suggest you refuse to reduce your stand to "pro-abortion."<br /><br />My last "global nature of racism" post mentioned reproductive rights as key to some of the women affected by racism around the world. For many of them, being "allowed" to HAVE children is as important as the right to choose not to have children. Racially motivated coerced sterilization is very much a problem for many women of color still today - at <a href="http://kameelahwrites.wordpress.com/2007/01/16/to-incarcerated-women-in-california-while-pregnant-or-while-pushing-out-a-baby-please-consent-to-voluntary-sterilization/">home</a> and <a href="http://launch.praguemonitor.com/en/88/czech_national_news/6755/">abroad</a> (More <a href="http://www.libertadlatina.org/Crisis_Forced_Sterilization.htm">here</a> and reader comment from Jennifer James <a href="http://whiteantiracistparent.blogspot.com/2007/05/global-nature-of-racism-part-i.html">here</a>.) Thus, we would do right by all of us who believe in choice, to use a more inclusive term.<br /><br />The other example, related to the main idea of this post, is "climate change." The Bushites wanted to turn down the heat of global warming so they could, unfettered, continue reaping their oil, nuclear energy and military complex profits and had their darling consultant Luntz coin the term "climate change" to be used in all talking points and in mainstream media. Much more innocuous, don't you think? So, let's call global warming what it is and not euphemize the phrase.<br /><br />My point is, and politicians know this so well, that wording does shape the content and tone of both debate and legislation, and in turn affecs all of us. So, I think we should be more critical of the wording we use to discuss key issues.<br /><br />The issue I want to discuss today is global warming. Namely, my point is that the global warming crisis disproportionately impacts groups of color, indigenous communities, and low-income people.<br /><br />Today's New York times and Boston Globe feature an <a href="http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/05/27/melting_ice_forces_sinking_alaska_village_to_seek_lifeline/">article</a> about a group that is now among the first climate refugees in the United States. The people comprising this group, like the vast majority of Katrina refugees, are people of color. More specifically, this time the community in focus are the Newtok, Native people of Alaska.<br /><br />The article reads: <br /><br /><blockquote>The earth beneath much of Alaska is not what it used to be. The permanently frozen subsoil, known as permafrost, upon which Newtok and so many other Native Alaskan villages rest, is melting, yielding to warming air temperatures and a warming ocean. Sea ice that would normally protect coastal villages is forming later in the year, allowing fall storms to pound away at the shoreline.<br /><br />Erosion has made Newtok an island, caught between the ever widening Ninglick River and a slough to the north. The village is below sea level, and sinking.<br /><br />. . . Studies say Newtok could be washed away within a decade.</blockquote><br /><br />And continues with the residents discussing the racist treatment of the tribe by the federal government:<br /><br /><blockquote>Residents here emphasize that they are a federally recognized American Indian tribe, and they shudder when asked why they cannot just move to an existing village or a city like Fairbanks.<br /><br />They say their identity is rooted in their isolation, however qualified it has become over the last century by outside influences. It was the government, they say, that insisted decades ago that they abandon their nomadic ways and pick a place to call home.<br /><br />The current village site was once only a winter camp, and the people of Newtok say they are not to blame just because they are now among the first climate refugees in the United States.<br /><br />"The federal government, they're the ones who came into our lives and took away some of our values," said Nick Tom Jr., 49, the former Newtok tribal administrator. "They came in and said, 'You aren't civilized. We're going to educate you.' That was hard for our grandparents."</blockquote><br /><br />Meanwhile, the Bush administration is fighting tooth and nail any kind of pressure on them to curb carbon emissions. Just yesterday, according to <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/05/26/1479/">Common Dreams</a>, Greenpeace published "a leaked document showing the United States has raised serious new objections to a proposed global warming declaration for next month’s Group of Eight summit." In the document, "US officials representing the administration of President George W. Bush reject . . . the idea of setting mandatory emissions targets, as well as language calling for G8 nations to raise overall energy efficiencies by 20 percent by 2020." <br /><br />This from the government of a country which constitutes just 4 percent of the world's population, but that is responsible for about 25 percent of global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, the main cause of global warming. (Souce: Ms. Laura Orlando: The Melting Point published in the spring 2007 issue of Ms.).<br /><br />Does the U.S. government care about the Newtok tribe? And on a larger scale, is the government taking steps to prepare for the climate refugees, from within this country and without, that will inevitably begin seeking relocation in just a few short years? No, too busy instituting anti-immigration policies, halting anti-global warming action and destoying the Alaskan wilderness with oil drilling. The Bushites can't even repair the damage once it's been done. Take the New Orleans levees, for example, which about the year ago the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers declared restored to "pre-Hurricane Katrina strength." Recently, however, the New Orleans levees and flood walls were <a href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/05/070506-orleans-levees.html?intcmp=InsideMay07">inspected</a> by engineering professor Bob Bea of the University of California, Berkeley along with National Geographic magazine, who found the "riddled with flaws." The walls are so full of weak spots, in fact, that a storm even weaker than Katrina could breach the levees if it hit this year, say leading experts in the field. <br /><br />Meanwhile the Newtok, thinking ahead, according to the New York Times plan to "move piecemeal rather than in one collective migration, which they say will save money. . . They say he government should pay, no matter the cost -- if only there were a government agency charged with doing so. There is not a formal process by which a village can apply to the government to relocate."<br /><br />While Native Alaskan tribes try to protect their homes from shifting and sliding on mud while watching the water around them encroach on the land and the animals around them drown in the warming waters, governmental policies on every level continue to ignore the looming crisis, encouraging destructive policies and failing to take a stand against global warming. As Mary Christina Wood, professor of law at University of Oregon <a href="http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_5261.cfm">said</a>: "County commissioners are approving trophy home subdivisions and destination resorts as if global warming didn't exist. State environmental agencies are approving air permits as if global warming didn't exist. The Forest Service is approving timber sales as if global warming didn't exist. And the electric power industry is racing to build more than 150 new coal-fired power plants across the U.S., banking on federal approval as if global warming didn't exist."<br /><br />On a global scale, the emissions coming from the U.S., the pollution U.S. companies export elsewhere, and the <a href="http://www.sgr.org.uk/ArmsControl/NfPAGMnotes_feb07.html">wars</a> U.S. is waging in the Middle East and elsewhere, are directly responsible for much of the global warming, causing suffering and displacement of largely poor people and people of color around the world. But this is just the beginning. Everyone will feel the heat eventually. <br /><br />Wood summarizes the already visible and possible future effects of global warming: <br /><br /><blockquote>"United Nations reports show rapid melting of the polar ice sheets, Antarctica, Greenland and glaciers throughout the world. The oceans are heating and rising. Coral reefs are bleaching and dying. Species are on exodus from their habitats towards the poles. As a result of global warming the world now faces crop losses, food shortages, flooding, coastal loss, wildfire, drought, pests, hurricanes, heat waves, disease and extinctions. An international climate team has warned countries to prepare for as many as 50 million human environmental refugees by 2010. Scientists explain that, due to the carbon already in the atmosphere, we are locked into a temperature rise of at least 2 degrees F. This alone will have impacts for generations to come, but if we continue business as usual, they predict Earth will warm as much as 10.4 degrees F, which will leave as many as 600 million people in the world facing starvation and 3.2 billion people suffering water shortages; it will convert the Amazon rainforest into savannah, and trigger the kind of mass extinction that hasn't occurred on Earth for 55 million years."</blockquote><br /><br />And this quote really brings it home: <br /><br /><blockquote>"Global warming threatens all of our basic survival mechanisms -- food, water, shelter, and health. British commentator Mark Lynas, author of High Tide, summarizes it this way: If we go on emitting greenhouse gases at anything like the current rate, most of the surface of the globe will be rendered uninhabitable within the lifetimes of most readers of this article."</blockquote><br /><br />Native tribes in Alaska and Hurricane Katrina and Rita refugees, among whom the African American individuals were hit harder than whites, acorrding to a recent <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/09/AR2007050902556.html">study</a> are the first groups among our midst to feel the might of our man-made climate mess. By the way, about 86,000 families are still <a href="http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=11161&sectionid=3510203">homeless</a> as a result of the hurricanes. Globally, the communities most affected as of now are the South Pacific due to the recurring hurricanes and cyclones; South Asia with its deluges, droughts, mudslides, annual flooding and even droughts; and Africa with its perennial and long-drawn African droughts. But other regions are registering dramatic changes as well. The Himalayan glaciers are melting as are the polar caps. <br /><br />I agree with Wood when she describes the attitude of most Americans as blase towards global warming. We may be reading about it, thinking about it, talking about it, and dreaming about it at night (At a party I went to recently, the vast majority of the guests came to realize they were having recurring global warming nightmares almost nightly). But despite all this, very little is being done by the masses and the government in this country<br /><br />As Wood says: <br /><br /><blockquote>The reality today is that most Americans are too absorbed in their own routines to make time for global warming. We parents tend to be an especially busy group. We are so consumed with taking our children to soccer games and piano lessons that we don't think ahead to how our children will get food and water, and be safe from storms, disease, and all of the other life-threatening circumstances that planet's heating will bring them. By living out the American dream, we are essentially signing our own children up for a draft for their lifetimes. But this war will be the most frightening because it has no end in sight for even their descendants, and all of Nature's survival resources will be scarce. Unfortunately, it's no consolation that we are good, devoted parents who just aren't that interested in global warming. Nature won't recognize our children as conscientious objectors to climate crisis.<br /><br />To be sure, there are some Americans who are engaged and responding with small changes in their lives. They ride the bus more often, they refuse to buy bottled water, they turn off lights. This brings them comfort, thinking the problem is on its way to being solved. These people are important models, but national defense cannot be put on the backs of a few good soldiers. Most concerned citizens are doing nothing to enlist the rest of society in climate defense.<br /><br />. . . Overall, our society is nowhere near decarbonizing. Climate defense entails carbon math. We lose this war for countless generations to come if we can't get our total planetary carbon levels down before the tipping point. Each day that passes, the window of opportunity to avert global catastrophe closes a little more.</blockquote><br /><br />Action must be taken at the highest legislative level. <br /><br />Josh Lynch has a nice comprehensive <a href="http://itsgettinghotinhere.org/2007/05/26/principles-into-practice/">piece</a> on the It's Getting Hot in Here blog, which "features student and youth leaders from the movement to stop global warming and to build a more just and sustainable future." Josh's piece outlines some actions that can be taken domestically to curb global warming and prioritize green energy.<br /><br />We must take individual actions, but more importantly press the government to make action to slow global warming and to aid affected groups a priority - for our children and for those worldwide in harms way because of the greed and racism inherent in the American Dream.Terezahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01537776511607080977noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38694204.post-17617500606556088172007-05-26T20:16:00.001-07:002007-05-26T20:28:28.548-07:00graffiti from the pit of hell<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_zAo7mS2S0as/Rlj5b2N-cII/AAAAAAAAACs/W2ec6IL2zTo/s1600-h/river.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_zAo7mS2S0as/Rlj5b2N-cII/AAAAAAAAACs/W2ec6IL2zTo/s200/river.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5069075637411410050" /></a><br />First, look at this beautiful scenery. This river valley is truly one of the most gorgeous places in my area. My husband, son, and I went on a hike there today. <br /><br />When we sat down at a picnic table to eat our lunch, low and behold, I noticed the graffiti on the picnic table - in German. Scribbled on the table in thick black marker were the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arbeit_macht_frei">words</a> which the Nazis placed over concentration camp gates: "Work brings freedom." But the author also added the word Jews in German. <br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_zAo7mS2S0as/Rlj5nGN-cJI/AAAAAAAAAC0/5FKcS0gQ-XE/s1600-h/sign.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_zAo7mS2S0as/Rlj5nGN-cJI/AAAAAAAAAC0/5FKcS0gQ-XE/s200/sign.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5069075830684938386" /></a><br /><br />This hit me right in the pit of my stomach. My grandparents and many other relatives were imprisoned in concentration camps, many died there. How could anyone propagate this kind of thought and hate today? And in one of the most beautiful places in our region. Truly despicable. I took a picture of the sign, then tried my best to scratch it off the table with a sharp rock.Terezahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01537776511607080977noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38694204.post-14316335697655552202007-05-25T11:54:00.000-07:002007-05-31T13:08:59.789-07:00book update<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_zAo7mS2S0as/Rlcyl2N-cFI/AAAAAAAAACU/97pClDrDyKw/s1600-h/Evite-small-jazz-man+copy.gif"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_zAo7mS2S0as/Rlcyl2N-cFI/AAAAAAAAACU/97pClDrDyKw/s320/Evite-small-jazz-man+copy.gif" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5068575531419463762" /></a><br />My son loves This Jazz Man! The cover says the book is appropriate for three- to seven-year-olds, but my son, who is barely two, loves it. I already had to read/sing it to him about ten times today and he cried when I refused to read it again. He has already learned a few words from the book: bass, encore, jazz man.... He loves the playfulness of the language (scat and bee bop sounds) and the instruments in the book. His uncle, who unfortunately lives 3,000 miles away, is a jazz drummer. My son got to play his uncle's drum set and piano when we last visited and still remembers the thrill. The book gives us a chance to review his drum knowledge too (drum sticks, bass drum, high hat, etc.)! So, this book was a great buy. And, as I mentioned before, the illustrations are wonderful. I highly recommend This Jazz Man!Terezahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01537776511607080977noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38694204.post-1882768349703594662007-05-24T21:57:00.001-07:002007-05-24T23:01:10.382-07:00bookstore adventureToday I snuck out of work early and stole away to a bookstore to take a look at the multicultural books recommended to me by the readers and contributors to AntiRacistParent.com in response to my <a href="http://www.antiracistparent.com/2007/05/11/oh-the-wonderful-world-of-toddler-picture-books-and-more/">column</a> on the lack of diversity in toddler literature. <br /><br />I spent an (uninterrupted!) hour and a half at the store, which happens to be the largest new and used bookstore in the world. Yes, you guessed it - Powell's Books. I was able to locate only a handful of the recommended titles, and of those only about four actually featured characters of color. Unfortunately, I found some of the illustrations to be of poor esthetic quality. A matter of personal taste and bias, I know. <br /><br />For example, Spike Lee's Please Baby Please is an excellent concept. I loved the language and the playfulness of the ideas, but the illustrations, I thought, were terrible. The babies on some of the pages seemed misshapen and malformed with stubby arms and strangely twisted bodies and facial expressions that were supposed to be happy, but seemed full of agony. That was too bad, because I loved the text of the book. I know my son would have loved it too. <br /><br />I was impressed with the Snowy Day Book by Ezra Jack Keats, but summer is about to hit and snow is quite a ways away. Maybe a good Christmas gift?<br /><br />What disappointed me the most, though, was how few children's books with central, even secondary characters of color were displayed and stocked by the bookstore. By the end of my bookstore experience I was so sick of looking at silly pink and purple animal characters and white people on nearly every page that I felt discouraged. Just like that time I went to the same store looking for birthday cards for two friends of color. All I found were white faces or kitchy and borderline racist Asian-style cards. Man oh man. And I never said anything to the store. I suppose there is still time.<br /><br />During today's excursion I did decide to browse the international folktale picture book section too though my 21-months-old son is too young for folk tales. But those books were pretty much a horror story as well. Most of the folk tales were Asian, retold by Anglos (because they tell it best - know what I mean?) with illustrations so racist (like <a href="http://www.apples4theteacher.com/images/chinese-new-year-literature/the-five-chinese-brothers.jpg">this</a> one) that I was shocked. Scary! And why does one have to go to the international section to find books focusing on people of color anyway?<br /><br />I did buy one picture book that was recommended to me on Anti-Racist Parent. It's called This Jazz Man and is written by Karen Ehrhardt, an African-American author Karen Ehrhardt. The book introduces famous African-American jazz musicians as it counts to nine. It's beautifully illustrated with collages by R.G. Roth. We'll see what my son thinks. It's definitely not a book about construction equipment, which is his latest obsession.<br /><br />Well, I won't let myself get discouraged so easily by this bookstore experience. I will keep searching. If you have any recommendations on toddler books featuring characters of color, please let me know.Terezahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01537776511607080977noreply@blogger.com5